Remember when we said we were skeptical about the “certainty” of the block grant funding? We still are. Although the across-the-board cuts, including 6.2% to education were avoided when the tax bill was passed, we still see that cuts to education are not “off the table” when budgets are tight. “Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said that without tax increases, the most likely option for Brownback is cutting $400 million from a budget approved by legislators for the fiscal year beginning July 1, to avoid a deficit. He said the cuts would most likely be a 6.2 percent across-the-board...
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House leadership using cuts to schools as leverage on tax vote
House leadership is threatening cuts to schools in order to get legislators to pass a tax bill that will leave the structural revenue imbalance causing budget problems intact. “Merrick indicated failure could result in large cuts, including to education. Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has indicated without a revenue package in place, it will likely slash state spending by 6 percent – an approximately $197 million cut to education spending. “’If you’re for education, I expect to see a green light, I expect you to vote for this. Because the consequences of what comes down the line,’ Merrick said.”...
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Leave a Comment House to debate and vote on flawed tax bill tonight
From our friends at Johnson County Educators: This is, for the most part, the same bill passed by the Senate earlier this week. It is still the largest tax increase in Kansas history and will be shouldered by the middle and working classes. It still contains the tax credit “scholarship”/voucher provision. Also, the bill contains no rollback at all of the exemption of 300,000+ businesses from having to pay any income tax. Please contact your House representative now and encourage them to vote “no”. Read about where things stand here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article23685964.html....
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Leave a Comment House to debate and vote on tax bill tonight
The House will debate and vote on their tax proposal which is very similar to the Senate version. Here’s the conference committee report: http://kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/sb270/ You can listen live here: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/; click on House-listen to live proceedings in the House....
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