Editorial: Denning’s plan to boost taxes way off the mark

Kansas State Sen. Jim Denning is pushing a complex proposal that might generate $600 million to balance the state’s fiscally distressed budget.

Unfortunately, the Overland Park Republican is pushing seven tax increases to help generate much of that money.

Yes, this is coming from an elected official in a party that gets its members into office by saying “Kansas families need to keep more of their money,” as House Speaker Ray Merrick of Stilwell put it recently.

There’s a much more responsible plan to better fund state services: reduce or eliminate the costly income tax cuts that Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature put in effect in 2013. They have drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget.

Instead, Denning is promoting ideas to:

▪ Tax e-cigarettes.

▪ Raise taxes on some owners of small businesses and farmers by “fixing” a flaw that Denning claims exist in the current tax-cut law.

▪ Raise the state sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.3 percent.

▪ Raise the gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon.

▪ Raise taxes on business income earned in Kansas by nonresidents.

▪ Raise the tax on managed care organizations that administer KanCare.

▪ Raise taxes on Kansans by reducing how much they can claim on itemized deductions.

Kansans will soon see whether the Republican-dominated Legislature will stick to its usual anti-tax stance. Or, it could open the floodgates to higher taxes to pay for the cuts being enjoyed by only a select group of Kansans.

This story was originally published April 21, 2015 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Editorial: Denning’s plan to boost taxes way off the mark."