The finances of the county, the city and the school district I live in are now entirely trapped in a fight for the last tax dollar many are able to part with over the rush to create a libertarian utopia. Sam Brownback’s folly to ‘untax’ the wealthy and corporations have shifted the entire burden of managing the state's finances directly on the backs of the middle and lower class populations of Kansas. Now that the state is unable to spread the wealth of northeastern Kansas to the more rural portions of Kansas, it will be up to the individual counties, cities and school districts to raise their own funds in any manner they can.
Sam told us he wanted Kansas to be more like Texas, where property taxes, fees and barrels of oil are the mainstay of revenue for counties, cities and school districts. He has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams with the compliant teabaggers his wealthy benefactors gave him in 2012. In Texas, a property owner pays property taxes to each level of government individually and in ever increasing amounts. Fees for services are high, but regulation is lax, allowing companies to build hazardous chemical plants in the middle of towns such as West, Texas. Can Sam Brownback's vision of "North Texas" be far behind his plan? Texas K-12 schools were consistently behind those of Kansas in college preparatory proficiency rates according to The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Kansas had a higher percentage of high school completion rates as well using the latest data from NCHEMS. I foresee the days of getting a better education in Kansas coming to a close well before my teen earns her high school diploma.
The media here is responsible for educating Kansans about the issues and I cannot name one that has done so adequately. As revenues decline, the people need to understand that they played a major role in creating this mess. It is the job of the ‘5th estate’ to provide the people with the truth, and most have failed very badly. While campaigning for the 1968 Presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy said, “Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital, quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.”
Where is the moral courage to change our current disastrous tax policy?
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