Editorial: Get practical

There are times to stand on principle and times to get practical. Now is the time for Kansas legislators to get practical.

A Legislative Research Department analysis that projects dire consequences for Kansas if the “glide path to zero” income tax is allowed to continue was distributed to Republicans in the Kansas Senate this week. Looking at how steadily decreasing income tax revenue will affect the state budget in the next several years, it’s hard to understand why Gov. Brownback and some state legislators so steadfastly support the policy.

Why can’t they take a look at the data and do what is best for the state?

Part of the answer to that question likely lies in the fact that many of these lawmakers came to Topeka to pursue a certain ideology of governing. They campaigned, and were elected, on an anti-tax, small government platform. In a number of cases, they defeated incumbent legislators by pointing to their willingness to approve a temporary sales tax increase to address revenue shortfalls triggered by the nation’s Great Recession.

Based on that ideology, in their minds, they ARE doing what’s best for the state. Chairman of the House Taxation Committee Marvin Kleeb, R-Overland Park, described it last week: “This is part ideology and part, ‘This is just not in our DNA.'”

Governing by ideology doesn’t require a lot of thought or analysis. All legislators have to do is reflexively vote against every tax increase. If that means that Kansas prisons don’t have enough guards or schools don’t have enough teachers or highways go untended, well, that’s too bad, but it can’t be helped because it doesn’t fit with my ideological view. And don’t bother me with details. We can always just implement across-the-board cuts so we don’t have to make specific decisions about what will be eliminated.

Probably the biggest ideological football in the budget negotiations is the income tax exemption for businesses and farmers in Kansas. Despite all the hard evidence to the contrary, the governor and some legislators are clinging to the idea that this policy will provide huge economic benefits for the state. Hard-line senators forced their representative on a House-Senate budget conference committee to promise he wouldn’t accept any changes to the business tax exemption. Gov. Brownback sent word through Secretary of Revenue Nick Jordan that he would veto any plan that attacked that exemption.

Their stand doesn’t exactly promote the spirit of compromise that is needed to overcome this year’s budget standoff.

As legislators continue to show, there are many ways to approach the effort to close a $400 million gap in the state budget. Revisions to the income tax exemption for businesses should be part of that discussion. If legislators think the data they’ve received and the financial situation they face justifies changes in that exemption, they should include them in the plan. If the governor vetoes that plan, so be it. If that is his choice, he can stand up and take responsibility for it.

Legislators who are being driven by ideology should consider that Kansans are pretty practical people. Maybe it’s time to look at the facts and set some of the narrow ideology aside.