Kansas, You're Killing Us Here

So Kansans elected and then re-elected the Right Wing, Republican, uber-conservative, "trickle down economics" demagoguing numbskull that was and still is Sam Brownback as governor and we all know how that's gone.

Deficits, slashed school spending, robbing children of state funding for programs, lowered state debt rating, etc., etc.

It's not gone well, to say the least.

And with all that, it seemed they were learning, finally, at long last. Kansans had and have a large disapproval rating of Mr. Brownback, albeit far too late. So you'd think they'd be learning, right?

Well, turns out you'd be wrong. This broke in the last 24 hours.

Poll: Trump leads Clinton in Kansas

What the freak?

Are you kidding me?

Do you people not know Donald "Don't Bother Me With the Facts" Trump supports the same kind of slash-the-taxes-for-the-wealthy policies as your failed and failing governor? Do you not know that?

Do you learn nothing?

Not only that but The Donald is far more emotional and less educated in politics and government than the Guv'. This guy is and would be a walking nightmare.

But what the heck. It isn't like we don't have our own problems over here in Missouri. Eric Greitens, Catherine Hanaway and the entire Republican roster for our own governor being the source of many.

Las Vegas billionaire contributes $200,000 to Greitens campaign

Link:  The Shameless Catherine Hanaway

Vulnerable GOP Senators In-Line with Dangerous Trump/Pence Agenda

Kansas Republicans in Topeka Have Their Priorities Set

Indeed, those Kansas Republicans over in Topeka, from the Governor all through the state capitol, surely have their priorities set. In stone.

Years ago now, they cut taxes for the already-wealthy and corporations, raised them on the middle- and lower- and so, working-classes and set about just the chain of events they wanted. They were sure it would produce grand, paying results for the state. So the economists said they'd be wrong! So what?

Turns out, as we've found, as the same economists predicted, the economists were, in fact, correct and those same Right Wing legislators were dead wrong. Colossally, fiscally wrong:

Kansas faces nearly $120 million shortfall 

for fiscal year

Gov. Sam Brownback will pull money from the state’s highway fund and other sources after state economists projected a $118 million budget shortfall Friday.

Even after those adjustments, the state is projected to have a cash balance of $5.6 million at the end of June and to face a shortfall of $175.6 million for 2017, the economists said.

Asked whether the state is in the red, Budget Director Shawn Sullivan replied: “Depends on what you look at. We’re basically at zero right now, so yes.”

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said the Legislature would start the 2016 session “basically where we were at the beginning of the 2015 session,” facing the question of how to right the state’s finances.

Lawmakers ended a record-long session in June by increasing sales taxes to cover a budget deficit caused in large part by income tax cuts...

...The latest shortfall comes after sales tax revenue fell short of projections. The state’s economists lowered the estimate for sales tax revenue by $91 million for the year while lowering the estimate for overall revenue by $159 million.

As for just a glimmer of what this means for Kansas, the article goes on:

Brownback will make a combination of budget cuts and funding sweeps to balance the budget.

He will take $50 million from the Kansas Department of Transportation. Sullivan said this would not affect previously announced highway projects.

He also will take $9 million from the Children’s Initiative Fund, which goes to support early childhood programs such as Early Head Start.

Sullivan said this would not affect the programs’ funding for this year. But the advocacy group Kansas Action for Children said that this would affect long-term funding for children’s programs, which have been cut in recent years...

...Brownback will also sweep $5 million from the Kansas Bioscience Authority, a quasi-governmental agency meant to spur investment in the biotech sector. The Eagle reported in July that the KBA was already on the brink of collapse and halting new investment in the face of reduced state funding.

As for Kansas schools, you might ask?

The governor made no cuts to education, but Scott Rothschild, spokesman for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said that the budget news was still a cause for concern for schools.

“The future doesn’t look good. We’re going to have to keep our eye on this,” he said. “Obviously, we have tax cuts that were implemented that have put us in a perpetual budget crisis.”

Then there's this budget cut:

Budget Shift Will Cut Childhood Program Funds

An advocacy group says a budget adjustment that took $9 million from Kansas’ Children’s Initiatives Fund will mean a cut in money promised to 20 children’s programs.

The Kansas City Star reports a review by Kansas Action for Children says the budget adjustment will cost early childhood grant programs about 6.5 percent in funding for fiscal year 2016 and about 3 percent in fiscal year 2017.

Stealing from children. And the poor. Nice, huh? Real Christians, those, eh?

But did they take care of themselves? Did the Republican legislators over there in Topeka make sure they, themselves were taken care of? Why don't be silly! OF COURSE they did!

Kansas legislators get 8.5 percent raise 

in allowance

Check out this wonderful stuff:

Kansas lawmakers quietly and automatically got an 8.5 percent raise in their allowance last month.

The raise is because of an escalator clause in state law that has increased lawmakers’ daily “subsistence payments” by more than 28 percent through the past seven years of fiscal woes, employee pay freezes and cuts in other government departments.

The payments, also known as per diem, are the set amount lawmakers get to pay their living expenses each day they work in Topeka.

As of Oct. 1, it’s $140 a day, up from $129.

The per diem payments are actually about 45 percent more than legislators earn in salary, and the money is theirs to keep and spend however they want.

For the legislators, those automatic raises in per diem essentially represent an increase in their compensation, without them having to make the politically difficult floor vote to raise their salaries.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article44382441.html#storylink=cpy

So first, they got a pay raise. 

Second, it's automatic. They don't have to have a messy---and possibly reported on---vote about it.

Third and finally, whatever they don't spend, they get to keep. Not like in the business sector, which these people say they like to emulate. If they don't spend it, they get to stash it.

Can you imagine getting $140 per day from your boss for "expenses", on top of your pay? Wouldn't that be a sweet deal? You think you wouldn't "brown bag" it to work or eat on the cheap so you could keep that for yourself?

Don'tcha just love government representatives like these?

Don'tcha just love "small government", Right Wing, Republican legislators who always harp how they're "for the people" and low spending?

Don'tcha just love Kansans who vote for these people?

Doesn't it make you want to move and live there?

Additional links:

Yael T. Abouhalkah: Kansas lawmakers' allowance increases faster than teachers' pay and, well, almost everything else

Where Republicans Went Wrong in Kansas

Kansas Financial Woes Getting Worse

It keeps getting worse over the state line in Kansas. This, yesterday, from the Wichita Eagle-Beacon:

Kansas lowers estimates for cash reserves less than a month into new fiscal year

A bit of the story:

The state’s cash balance could be even smaller next June than lawmakers realized when they approved a tax plan in June.

When lawmakers left Topeka last month, it was with the understanding the state would have $86 million in its cash reserves by the end of June 2016, which marks the end of the fiscal year, if the governor went ahead with $50 million in cuts.

But those estimates have already been lowered less than a month into the 2016 fiscal year. The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Research Department now says that the state will have about $67 million in its reserves by the end of the fiscal year – and that’s assuming Gov. Sam Brownback makes a full $50 million in cuts.

So far, the governor has identified only $2 million in cuts.

Since Republican Governor Sam Brownback and his Republican cohorts have taken over in Topeka, things have gone to bad to worse and now, to getting much worse.

Kansans need an election.

A great, big, fat, many state officeholders election, those poor things.

As further proof of the rather ugly financial, Kansas situaion, this broke late last evening:

Despite strict budget, midyear cuts could occur, Wichita schooldistrict superintendent says

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article27954994.html#storylink=cpy

How Far Down, Kansans, How Far Down?

How far down, Kansans, are you going to let Governor Brownback and the Republicans take you before you finally, finally say "Enough!"?
Now, this, today, from the Wichita Eagle-Beacon, no less, from right in the heart of the state:

Technology education incentives cut for Kansas school districts

Kansas school districts this year will get less than half the monetary incentive they expected from the state as part of a 2012 initiative to enhance career and technical education.

A memo sent to school districts from the Kansas State Department of Education last week says the per-pupil payment for students who obtained certificates in certain high-demand fields will be “approximately $450” for the just-completed school year. That’s down from a $1,000 per-student incentive promised in the initial legislation.

“It’s been a great program. It’s been highly successful,” said Dale Dennis, deputy education commissioner. “But the appropriation was just reduced due to the state’s fiscal condition.”

So it's a great program, it's for the kids, for the students and for education in technology but due to Governor Sam Brownback's and his Republican Party's "trickle down" tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the program gets cut and the kids go wanting.

Less education.

Less experience.

And this is a good idea how?

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/education/article25701169.html#storylink=cpy

Article and video on Wichita, KS and the Koch brothers in NYT today

First the video:

Koch County, Kansas

The Koch brothers have their name on a lot of things in Wichita, home of Koch Industries - a zoo exhibit, a YMCA, a basketball arena. But even in a city they've given millions to, there are skeptics.

And then the article:

In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled

For residents of the Kochs' hometown, Wichita, Kan., the brothers are known less for their political agenda and more for their extensive philanthropy, which some see as a mixed blessing.

Sam Brownback's Kansas

Did you see the latest results of Republican Governor of Kansas Sam Brownback's and his cohorts handiwork?  It's a real beauty:

Census shows more people leaving Kansas

A bit from the article:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - New census figures show that more people have been moving out of Kansas than have been moving in recently.

From 2010 to 2013, Kansas lost 10,197 people because of outward migration, according to numbers released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The census also showed that Kansas gained 16,752 people from international migration over the last four years, but lost 26,949 to other states, which resulted in the net 10,197 loss.

From 2000 to 2009, Kansas had a net migration loss of 17,574, with most of it occurring from 2001 to 2005, when Kansas had a net loss of more than 27,000 people.

As if that isn't bad enough, it really does get worse:
As if Kansas was among the bottom 10 states in the number of people who moved in from other states compared with the number who moved out during the 12 months ending July 1, 2013. Kansas ended the year with a net loss of 12,557.
Now, sure, the people leaving very rural, nearly empty Kansas isn't completely, totally due to the results of the Republican work of slashing the taxes of the already-wealthy and heaping those taxes, instead, on the middle- and lower-classes but one thing's for sure, it surely isn't helping. It isn't helping the workers and working class people of the state, it hasn't helped businesses increase and/or expand in the state and it surely hasn't helped the budget of the state or of their schools.

Not only that but it's not expected to get any better any time soon, according to the Lawrence paper:

Study: Kansas' population to drop more | CJOnline.com

 

WICHITA — A decades-long decline in population is likely to continue in Kansas, particularly in the west of the state, and four counties could have fewer than 1,000 residents by 2040, according to a study by Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research.

 

All I can say is, Paul Davis can't become governor soon enough.

 

 



The fit is hitting the shan, economically, in Kansas

Breaking, if bad, news in and for Kansas this week:

Moody's calls school finance ruling a 'credit negative' for Kansas

Kansas Representative Paul Davis' Facebook page called it last night:

For the second time in two years, Governor Brownback's reckless tax experiment has caused Kansas' credit rating to be downgraded. This is just more evidence that his "real live experiment" is failing.

And it's more than a little bit difficult to disagree with that assessment. When you raise taxes on most people in your state--the middle- and lower-classes yet raise them on the wealthy, it's just not a wise recipe for growth or strength.

Kansas' WuShock and WSU in today's NYT

Big sports article:

The Pride of Wichita State, Whatever It May Actually Be

"Small government" Republicans?

Oh, sure they are.    Well, until it comes to bringing home the bacon for their own district.

I got this email last evening from none other than Kansas Senator Jerry Moran:

NBAF Funded in Omnibus Bill
Today, we received good news — the Omnibus appropriations bill includes $404 million for construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan. For those who have questioned whether NBAF will be built in Kansas, the passage of this funding bill will provide a clear answer: yes. This investment means Kansas will become a research epicenter, and the construction of this modern, world-class facility will ultimately create jobs for Kansans in the fields of engineering, science and technology. The talented young men and women who grow up here will have the opportunities they need to stay in Kansas.

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have worked to make certain NBAF remains a top priority for the Department of Homeland Security, the Administration and among Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. I am grateful to Governor Brownback, the Kansas legislature and Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz for their leadership and support as this process continues.

A January 2012 economic impact report found the NBAF will employ approximately 326 permanent employees and support some 757 construction jobs. The facility is expected to have a $3.5 billion economic impact on Kansas in the first 20 years alone. In addition to creating an economic boom for Kansas, NBAF will protect our national economy by researching foreign animal disease threats, which are very real with devastating impacts. The cost of an outbreak far outweighs the NBAF construction cost, not only in the loss of human life but also its damage to the animal and agricultural industry.

The state-of-the-art biosecurity lab is to be built adjacent to Kansas State University. The main laboratory will boast safety and security features recommended by the National Academies of Sciences. The state of Kansas showed its commitment to this project by contributing $202 million. A funding commitment was also made to provide infrastructure repairs at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center to guarantee a smooth transition of research from Plum Island, N.Y., to Manhattan, Kan.

And of course, that wasn't enough pork, oh, no. He's not done yet:

Basing Tanker at McConnell AFB Funded in Omnibus Bill
The Omnibus appropriations bill also includes $219 million in military construction funding for upgrades to McConnell Air Force Base (AFB) to accommodate the new KC-46A tankers. The KC-46A tanker fleet will begin arriving at McConnell in 2016, bringing more than 200 airmen to the base. The economic impact in Wichita and around the state will be felt before their arrival, as military construction of the infrastructure necessary to safeguard and house the new, larger tankers begins. 

The various McConnell facility projects include: installation of the weapon system trainers to be ready for the aircraft arrival in 2016; construction of fuel cell and corrosion control hangars; construction of a parking space and hydrant fuel system; and, construction of a squadron operations and aircraft maintenance unit building. This investment is great news for our state and the city of Wichita, which is and will remain the air capital of the world. The Omnibus appropriations bill is expected to be voted on in the U.S. House and Senate this week.

Oh, yeah, they're "small government" all right.   As long as it's the other government representative that isn't getting money in HIS or her district, sure, they are.

In the meantime, this is the political party that wants to cut your, our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, folks.

Small spending, my eye.

He goes on to say, in his email about "Discussing the Best Ways to Create Jobs and Opportunity."

Never once in the following information did he say anything of, say, a jobs/infrastructure bill he or his fellow Republicans might propose.

So much for growth in our economy, eh?

You're blowing Kansas cash, Gov. Brownback and we're not talking a lottery here

From Kansas Representative Paul Davis on his Facebook page today--a link to an article from the Wichita Eagle newspaper about their statehouse budget/tax mess:

House rejects compromise tax bill

TOPEKA — The Kansas House of Representatives on Tuesday soundly defeated the latest tax plan to come before it, leaving no clear path to end the contentious legislative session that is already well into overtime.

By a 71-42 vote, the House rejected a conference committee compromise on the tax bill, House Substitute for Senate Bill No. 84.

The bill would have set the sales tax rate at 6 percent – lower than the current 6.3 percent but higher than the 5.7 percent that will automatically take effect July 1, when an emergency sales tax increase passed in the depth of the recession three years ago expires.

The bill would have reduced base income tax rates but would also have trimmed tax deductions, including the standard deduction used by many taxpayers.

Rep. Davis' response to yesterday's actions--and the article:

This was not a compromise. This was an $856 million tax increase on Kansas middle class families, proposed to pay for income tax cuts for millionaires and big corporations. The legislative session has now been in overtime for 6 days, costing Kansas taxpayers $45,000 a day. How long will Governor Brownback let this continue?

So Kansas, Kansans, you, ladies and gentlemen, have had a grand total, as of last evening, of $270,000 spent in your name--that the state coffers didn't have anyway--all so you can, if Governor Brownback and the Republicans in the legislature have their way, raise taxes on the middle- and lower-classes and lower the taxes of the already-wealthy and corporations. A quarter of a million dollars that Kansas doesn't have, wasted and each day adds another $45,000.

Great day to be a Kansan, isn't it?

Ain't it great to be rich?

Don't you wish YOU were?

Gonzaga loses?? To who??

Number one seed Gonzaga loses, that's big news but to whom??

Wichita State knocks out top-seeded Gonzaga

Kansas, you're taking it in the pocketbook because of your Governor

 

From the Kansas Democratic Party FB page today:

Gov. Brownback is lining up support behind taxing working Kansas families through higher sales taxes so he can pay for even more tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthiest Kansans. And this is after he eliminated the food sales tax credit, increasing taxes on working Kansans and making it harder to raise a family on a modest income.

Nice, eh?

More importantly, there is this from the Wichita Eagle-Beacon:

Eagle editorial: Flip-flop on sales tax?

Given how strenuously conservative lawmakers and anti-tax groups opposed the statewide sales-tax increase in 2010, it is hard to believe that the Legislature would even consider going back on its word and not allowing the tax to expire on July 1. Yet Gov. Sam Brownback and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce already have flip-flopped; lawmakers may do so, too.

When the Legislature approved the temporary tax increase, conservative lawmakers protested that it would wreck the economic recovery. The Kansas chamber condemned the budget deal as catering “to the needs of those at the government trough,” and it targeted for defeat lawmakers who “voted to impose higher taxes on job creators and families.”

Brownback also criticized the tax increase when he campaigned for governor that year. But after he was elected, he changed his view.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/01/02/2620816/eagle-editorial-flip-flop-on-sales.html#emlnl=Morning_Headlines_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Kansans, you're--we're--being taken for a ride, all so this Governor can, in his hopes, be the next president of these United States.

He need to hear from you and I, from all of us.

Wichitans do what Kansas Citians won't

Breaking news yesterday:

Voters group seeks city resolution against Citizens United decision

A coalition of voting-rights activists came to Wichita City Hall Tuesday asking the council to support a constitutional amendment to push corporate money out of politics.

About 30 residents — part of a new group called “We the People of Kansas” – stood up in the meeting to ask the council to pass a resolution supporting a proposed amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision.

And heaven knows we need to overturn and kill that God-awful ruling.

Thank you, Wichita, Kansas.

You beat us in city-wide celebrations with your annual River Festival and now this.

At least they have these things going for them.

Now, it's up to you Kansas City. Your move.

Link to original article: http://www.kansas.com/2012/07/17/2411510/voters-group-seeks-city-resolution.html#storylink=cpy

Oh, yeah. It was premeditated, 1st degree murder all right

More information on Scott Roeder's murder trial in the death of Dr. George Tiller, shot and killed at and in his church, of all places, on a Sunday morning, while the Dr. Tiller was volunteering:

"The man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller bought a gun two weeks before the slaying and practiced shooting it near Topeka the day before Tiller’s death, prosecutors said Friday."

There's more: "Paul Ryding, an equine veterinarian and member of Tiller’s church, testified that... he had seen Roeder in church about six months before the shooting, sitting in a back pew."

Oh, yeah.

Besides being guilty of shooting and killing Dr. Tiller, which he confessed to, he's clearly guilty of planning (premeditating) his killing of Dr. Tiller.

Here's some more insanity from this trial:

"Security was tight. A bomb-sniffing dog was in the courtroom before jurors arrived and in the hallways outside during breaks."

I have to conclude that security has to be tight on this trial, too, because, unfortunately, more self-righteous, right-wing, sanctimonious, religious fundamentalists with beliefs about "protecting life"--those of the unborn, anyway--might well try again, like the illustrious Scott Roeder, to take matters into their own hands and possibly blow someone up down there in Wichita, what with this trial, so they can have the kind of justice they think there should be.

And that's from the religious ones.

The wackos, anyway.

Want proof?

"Cathy Ramey, a longtime anti-abortion activist from Oregon, said she came to Wichita to observe the trial."

“'I’m here because I believe that God has a consistent standard of justice and whatever force is necessary to protect an innocent born person ought to be applied to an innocent unborn person as well,' Ramey said."

But wait, there's more:

"Regina Dinwiddie, a friend of Roeder’s from Kansas City, showed reporters a petition that she had been taking around Wichita. It declares Roeder’s actions as 'morally justified if they were necessary for the purpose of defending innocent human life. Under these conditions, Scott Roeder should be acquitted of all charges.'”

"Dinwiddie said she had gathered about 100 signatures on her petition."

That is some sad, sick thinking from these people, but it is the way they think, as shown by Roeder's actions and these women's own words and actions.

When you "know" God is on your side, you can do whatever you wish.

Laws, sanity and decency be damned.

Question to Scott Roede, Ms. Ramey, Ms. Dinwiddie and their ilk: Who would Jesus kill?