A new Kansas labor market report released today is unlikely to provide Gov. Sam Brownback with any relief from a barrage of negative reviews in the national press about his tax cuts and economic policy.

The June report shows private-sector employment has grown only about 1.3 percent over the last year, and about 2 percent since his first round of tax cuts took effect in January 2013.

Brownback’s Labor secretary, Lana Gordon, said the report was good news. “With another month of private sector job growth, Kansas continues its comeback from the recession, having now added more than 55,000 private sector jobs since January 2011,” she said.

But nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy has added about 3.5 million private-sector jobs since January 2013, for a growth rate of about 3 percent. And with the exception of Nebraska, all other surrounding states have enjoyed more robust job growth than Kansas over that same period.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Kansas added about 700 new private-sector jobs in June. But the unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a point, to 4.9 percent, reflecting an increase in the number of people in the labor market.

On the campaign trail, Brownback has touted the fact that total employment is now at an all-time high for Kansas. But in the context of the broader national and regional economies, many pundits have pointed out, that is subpar performance.

The left-leaning Center for Budget Policies and Priorities pointed out that trend in March when it issued a scathing review of Brownback’s tax cuts, calling the track record here a “cautionary tale” for any other state thinking about replicating the policy.

That report generated a storm of publicity in the national press, starting with the Washington Post, and the liberal website the Daily Kos. Before long, it was also picked up, and repeated on multiple shows, by NBC News and its cable news stepsister, MSNBC

By June, the New York Times picked up on the theme with a post by Upshot writer Josh Barro. That was followed up a couple days later with another piece by economist-columnist Paul Krugman, and then again with a Times editorial on July 13.

Some have argued that Brownback himself invited the national attention, first by hiring Arthur Laffer — the father of supply-side economics and a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan — to help craft his tax policy; and then by [boasting][13] that the tax cuts would be a “shot of adrenaline” to the Kansas economy, that would ultimately “pave the way to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, bring tens of thousands of people to Kansas, and help make our state the best place in America to start and grow a small business.”

So far, the labor numbers show, Kansas hasn’t added any more jobs than would have been expected otherwise during the national recovery, with or without the tax cuts, and some would argue it has grown less. Meanwhile, according to the Kansas Legislature’s own research department, the loss of revenue resulting from the tax cuts are projected to put the state general fund in a deep financial hole by fiscal year 2017.

[6]: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/29/1288180/-Impact-of-Massive-Tax-Cuts-on-Kansas-Offers-a-Warning-to-Wisconsin#