Business leaders tell Brownback to publicize tax cuts to businesses

? Business leader allies of Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday told the governor that his administration needed to do more to get the message out that many businesses were going to get a big tax cut next year.

Ivan Crossland, chief executive officer of Crossland Construction, said that when he talks to business owners they are unaware of the upcoming tax cuts.

“No one knows about the new tax structure,” Crossland said. “You’d think they would know.” He said business owners need to know about the tax cuts so they will “invest in the economy.”

David Murfin, president of Murfin Drilling, said a lot of business heads don’t believe the tax cuts are coming.

The comments from Murfin and Crossland came at the end of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors meeting. Both Murfin and Crossland, along with the Wichita-based Koch brothers, contributed to a group of Brownback-backed conservative Republicans who defeated incumbent Republicans in the recent GOP primary.

Brownback said his administration has conducted some seminars on the tax cuts, but added, “We need to get this out in the social media. Maybe we need to start a ‘Believe it’ campaign,” he said.

Brownback signed into law cuts that will exempt the owners of 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses from income taxes. In addition, the new law also will decrease the individual income tax rates for 2013, with the top rate dropping to 4.9 percent from 6.45 percent.