Kansas' Tax Woes, Come to Roost

So Kansas' Republican Governor Sam Brownback and all the Republican, Right Wing legislators over in Topeka got their way and slashed taxes for the wealthy and corporations with the promise it would bring business and tax money to the state's coffers.

We've all seen how that's turned out:

This was from April last year:

Moody's downgrades Kansas issuer rating to Aa2 from Aa1

This is from last August:

Kansas bond rating downgraded after tax cuts

This is from this past January:

Kansas tax cuts on trial amid huge budget deficit

And it was what Governor Brownback was warned of, as we know.

So this is what the Guv proposed to "fix" the budget/money problem:

Education Is Newest Target of Kansas Budget Cuts

And this, then, is the latest result of all this fiscal irresponsibility:

Kansas Schools Will Close Early This Spring For Lack Of Funds

So once again, this disproves the whole "trickle down" theory of government, of course. Slashing taxes for the wealthy and corporations does NOT create opportunity or even, as this shows, good, working budgets for governments to work on and function. And schools and education and the people will suffer. Terrific.

Not to be done there, California's example and situation also totally disproves the Ronald Reagan era, "trickle down" fallacy:

How Kansas and California Debunked the GOP's Tax Cuts

What a whole lot of us out here would love to see come from all this is the following:

1) Kansans and any other state going down this path need to learn from and stop this madness and, again, irresponsibility. Sure, a lot of damage has been done but next time around, here's hoping they learn or better yet, have already learned, and they vote the Republican tax slashers out;

2) That Americans, the nation over, see and learn this lesson, these lessons, so we no longer fall for this ridiculousness and we get on a path of working together and being responsible and, almost better yet, holding the wealthy and corporations responsible, too, for their very fair share of our nation's debt and expenses and functioning. And by this, I no way mean anything extraordinary or disproportionate to what they should or need to pay in taxes. We have schools and highways and bridges and sewers and airports and all kinds of infrastructure we need in order to function as a society. Their paying a bit in some cases, because they pay nothing, should no way be too much to ask of them.

Now let's hope Missouri and Jefferson City doesn't try to follow this ignorant, dangerous, irresponsible path.

Important movie this Monday evening

HBO has had a terrific run of putting out good movies to see, of course.  This is a particularly nice change for them, I think, as it's more of a documentary along the lines of "Enron:  The Smartest Guys in the Room."

We all need to see and know just what happened a few years ago so we can maybe also find out if anyone did anything blatantly illegal they should be prosecuted for now.

Oh, and it would be nice if we could and would learn some lessons, so we know what not to repeat.

Look at me, getting all hopeful.

Former Westar Exec gets big payday: Kansans get screwed

I wrote here before about how the two executives at Westar, over in Topeka, cleaned house, money-wise, over there and took such gross advantage of both the company and their customers.

Now, further proof positive that crime does pay.

At least it does if it's white collar crime:

Former Westar exec Lake to receive $21 million

A former executive at the largest electrical utility in Kansas will receive more than $26 million in compensation and attorney fees in a settlement reached at arbitration.

Under the settlement announced Friday, Douglas Lake will receive $21 million in unpaid compensation and $5.3 million in attorney fees.

Lake was the former top strategy officer at Topeka-based Westar Energy. He and former CEO David Wittig were forced out in 2002 and indicted by a federal grand jury in 2003 on charges they conspired to inflate their compensation.

A first trial ended in a hung jury in 2004. They were convicted in a second trial in 2005, but an appeals court in Denver threw out the convictions.

They were awaiting a third trial when charges against them were dismissed last August.

For a refresher course on these 2 clowns and their thievery, go here:

Mo Rage: Great NYT article on "The Enron of Kansas" or "The ...

And/or here:

Mo Rage: The Fleecing of Westar (and Kansas): 1, 2, 3, Part II 

So let that be a lesson to us all.

If you're going to steal, go big or don't go at all.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/14/2874918/former-westar-exec-lake-to-receive.html

What we've become

We've become a nation that is more driven for business than nearly anything else.

We are a nation that lets corporations gain their annual increases in profits and obscene executive salaries, again, at the cost of our society and at the cost of that same corporation's own employees and even clients and customers.

People suffer, literally, so corporations can make more money. (See the following movies: "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room", "Food, Inc.", "Sicko", read the book "Sick" about our health care system, read nearly anything lately about Goldman Sachs, the banking industry in the United States currently, etc., etc.).

Then there's our gun culture.

Guns and gun holders are coddled so we can have all-important "gun rights" and people can have as many guns as they want and carry them virtually anywhere and do almost anything with them.

Yesterday, here in Kansas City, an innocent woman from Kansas, employed by the Kansas Department of Education went with her 13-year old daughter and Mother-in-Law to the venerable, old and well-known Starlight Theater to see a performance. While driving away, a stray bullet hit and killed her.

Can you imagine the horror of her daughter and Mother-in-Law?

But will anything be done about our culture that, in the first place, wants all these guns and that, secondly, uses them, at whatever time, place and direction they want?

Randomly shooting their gun in a city neighborhood.

The police had been in the area earlier that same day, on reports of people shooting their guns.

Then this happened.

So the police naturally came back.

Yesterday, I predicted here that the local newspaper would cover this story on the front page of this morning's Sunday paper.

Not so.

Apparently they were all set to go with other stories. They covered, instead, Tom Watson's golf game and his comeback, at his advanced age.

Great priorities.

And the "shooting season" of hot summer in town hasn't even really begun.

What we've become as a nation and city and culture--it isn't pretty.

Links:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1333071.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1959464
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386032/plotsummary
http://www.sickthebook.com/