Today, the Kansas Senate will vote on a proposal to raise the state sales tax to plug an estimated $510 million budget hole. Last week, NTU, along with Americans for Prosperity Kansas, sent a letter to the legislature and activated its members to contact their representatives in Topeka to oppose these tax increases and focus on budget reform. The other day, the Senate dropped its plan to raise the cigarette tax, but now they're focusing on the sales tax.
As we wrote then and reiterate here:
"While some insist that rolling back expenditures would devastate vital services, a $510 million reduction would leave the state with roughly the same amount of money to spend as it had in 2006. Surely no one would argue that Kansas was drastically worse off that year, especially considering that the unemployment rate was a full two percentage points lower that year than it is today. Carefully taking a scalpel to the budget to return it to a condition seen just a few years ago will not cripple the state; rather, it will be restored to fiscal health without bleeding taxpayers for more money."
"A University of Kansas study shows that boosting the sales tax by even one percentage point would cost the state 26,000 jobs and reduce personal income by $2 billion. Based on past experiences across the country, claims that such a rate would be "temporary" are far from solid...Moreover, the sales and excise tax hikes would put Kansas at a competitive disadvantage in cross-border shopping because most of the state's neighbors would have lower rates."
If you live in Kansas, click here to contact your State Senators and tell them that budget reform, not a sales tax hike, is the way forward on the budget.