More Hokum from Hoeflich

Two months ago, Lawrence Journal-World columnist Mike Hoeflich wrote an opinion piece entitled "Something's wrong in Kansas." Hoeflich was not happy with the direction Governor Sam Brownback and his fellow "radical" Republicans are taking Kansas, and he wanted readers to know that he is darn angry about it. Hoeflich is still upset.

In his July 2 column, Hoeflich wrote the following:

The announcement of the June tax receipts, $28 million below the estimates, and the final total tax receipts for the just closed fiscal year, $338 million below the estimates, makes it absolutely clear that Brownback, members of the Kansas Legislature who hastily and intemperately voted for the draconian tax cuts, and anyone else who supported these cuts, have betrayed one of the principal tenets of traditional American conservative thought: "fiscal responsibility."

There is currently a debate concerning what has caused the failure of tax receipts to meet estimates. Hoeflich, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis, and numerous editorial pages throughout Kansas blame the tax cuts. Brownback and many Republicans blame other factors, including tax increases implemented by the Obama administration.

In Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, vetoed a tax-cut bill in 2013, and the Republican-dominated legislature failed to override his veto. "It’s a defining moment,” Nixon said at a news conference after his veto on the tax-cut bill was upheld. “Today was about protecting our economy, our communities and, especially, our schools from this costly and misguided bill."

However, on the same day that Hoeflich wrote that "draconian" tax cuts are responsible for the $338 million shortfall in Kansas, KMBC reported that Missouri's tax revenues for fiscal year 2014 fell $308 million short of Governor Jay Nixon's projections. Apparently, something is also wrong in Missouri.

So the Republican Brownback signed "draconian" tax cuts into law in 2013 and now tax receipts in his state are now $338 million below projections. The Democrat Nixon prevented "draconian" tax cuts to be enacted in his state in 2013 and tax receipts are now $308 million below projections. Given that two very different approaches towards tax cuts resulted in very similar shortfalls would appear to suggest that Brownback is correct when he blames external factors for the shortfalls. In other words, there is something wrong in Washington, D.C.