What Was Really the Matter with the Kansas Tax Plan - The Undoing of a Good Idea

This is a very important book, not only for state and national legislators who try to represent citizens instead of special interests, but also for taxing and spending watchdogs in the press and those involved with good government citizen activist groups.

Almost all governments have a real knack for wasting money and doing things badly, and that's what happened to what, on paper, promised to be the marvelous tax relief effort in Kansas promoted by its governor, Sam Brownback.

What really happened was this: Kansas legislators increased spending as taxes were cut and then routinely set new spending records. The tax cuts received the blame for the financial crisis which followed.

At the same time, Democrats and Republicans alike ignored the recommendations of an independent efficiency study, among other commonsense suggestions, which would have reduced state government costs by about $2 billion over several years. For example: (1) using bulk purchasing to reduce costs and (2) putting a reasonable cap on school district cash reserves. Kansas school districts had claimed to be underfunded while at the same time diverting money from classrooms into record-setting cash reserves.

Why is this story of interest to anyone not living in Kansas? The answer is this: the failure of the Kansas tax reduction plan has been widely used -- as a poster child -- to intimidate tax-cutters in other states.

This is the reason for this book: to correct the false narrative about Kansas and to show reform-minded legislators across the USA how to navigate a successful tax relief effort in their states -- through the shoals of politics-as-usual and the opposition from special interests -- by following both the blueprint and the history provided in this short guide.