Furloughs loom after the Kansas Legislature’s latest embarrassing failed vote

With furloughs looming for thousands of state employees, the Kansas Legislature met Friday and decided … nothing.

It was the latest embarrassing failure by lawmakers to deliver a balanced budget to finance state services. And it guaranteed the Legislature would meet into Saturday for the 107th day of a 90-day session, with each extra day costing taxpayers around $43,000.

Friday’s inaction led to the possibility that “non-essential” state workers could be furloughed starting this weekend, taking away their responsibilities to provide public services.

The House, for the second day in a row, defeated a misguided plan to increase the sales tax on 3 million Kansans. But the bill also contained a glimmer of hope: a partial rollback of the reckless tax cuts for certain businesses that lawmakers approved in 2012.

Some kind of repeal would make sense, requiring these business owners to pay at least something for the government-provided services they benefit from, such as K-12 schools, roads and public safety.

However, the idea of reneging even a bit on the 2012 plan brought out defenders of Gov. Sam Brownback, prime pusher of those tax breaks. Several lawmakers contended that the new bill would financially harm small businesses and stifle job growth.

But the evidence since the tax cuts took effect in January 2013 does not show they have led to a surge in employment. Indeed, in the first four months of 2015 — when Brownback’s plan should be churning on all cylinders — the state lost 300 jobs.

Lawmakers vowed Friday evening that they would meet as long as it took to pass something and send it to Brownback. They must keep pushing to reverse the excessive tax break for small businesses and to hold down sales tax increases on Kansans.

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Furloughs loom after the Kansas Legislature’s latest embarrassing failed vote."