• Kansas: Gov. Brownback wants to raid public pensions to pay for tax cuts
    20 replies, posted
[url]http://www.ibtimes.com/kansas-governor-proposes-using-pension-money-cover-budget-gaps-created-his-tax-cuts-1753626[/url] [quote] [B]In 2012, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback [URL="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/may/22/statehouse-live-brownback-sign-tax-cut-bill-law-no/"]signed[/URL] a landmark [URL="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/brownback-to-cut-pensions-roads-to-close-kansas-budget-deficit.html"]bill[/URL] that delivered big tax cuts to [URL="http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/may/27/kansas-tax-act-most-regressive-nation/?print"]high income earners and businesses[/URL]. Less than two years after that tax cut, the state's income tax revenues [URL="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=4110."]plummeted[/URL] by a [URL="http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article3542301.html"]quarter-billion dollars[/URL] -- and now Brownback is pushing to use money for public employees’ pensions to instead cover the state's ensuing budget shortfalls. [/B] Brownback's [URL="http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/State-agencies-facing-4-budget-cuts-285230271.html?device=tablet&c=y"]proposal[/URL]: Slash the state’s required pension contribution by $40 million to balance the state budget. But Kansas already has one of the worst-funded pension systems in the nation. The state was also recently [URL="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/11/sec-kansas-pensions-idUSL2N0QH15Z20140811"]sanctioned[/URL] by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not accurately disclosing the shortfalls. Brownback, an icon of [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-kansas-gov-sam-brownback-puts-tea-party-tenets-into-action-with-sharp-cuts/2011/11/02/gIQAkbnOAP_story.html"]tea party economics[/URL] who was re-elected in 2014, defended his proposal to divert money from the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), telling the [URL="http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article4413431.html"]Wichita Eagle[/URL]: “It’s kind of, uh, well where are you going to go for the funds? And I don’t like it, but it’s kind of what’s your other option if you don’t hit K-12 and higher ed with allotments?” Brownback joins fellow Republican Gov. Chris Christie in coupling large tax cuts and credits with cuts to actuarially required pension payments.[B] In New Jersey, Christie [URL="http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/03/25/gov-christie-retroactively-cuts-state-pension-payment/?p=all"]slashed[/URL] required pension payments while [URL="http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/christie_signs_bill_to_expand_corporate_tax_breaks_in_nj.html"]signing[/URL] legislation expanding tax credits to corporations[/B], and doling out a [URL="http://www.njpp.org/articles/business-incentives-boom-in-new-jersey-since-2010"]record[/URL] amount of corporate tax subsidies. [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/26/new-jersey-chris-christie-republican-backers"]Many[/URL] of those subsidies have flowed to firms whose executives have made campaign contributions to Republican political organizations. Last week, New Jersey pension trustees filed a [URL="http://www.ibtimes.com/pension-trustees-file-lawsuit-against-new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-1746504"]lawsuit[/URL] against Christie for not making legally required contributions to the state's pension system. Both Brownback and Christie promoted their tax cuts as instruments to boost economic growth. A recent [URL="http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article3209717.html"]review[/URL] of [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/27/tax-cuts-in-kansas-have-cost-the-state-money-and-jobs/"]federal data[/URL] by the Kansas City Star found Kansas [B]"trails most other states when it comes to job growth.”[/B] Likewise, an investigative [URL="http://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/government/2014/10/17/nj-comeback-still-not-here/17371567/"]series[/URL] by Gannett newspapers recently found [B]“New Jersey's job growth rate [is] the second worst in the nation.[/B] ... New Jersey's middle class has lost billions in income through layoffs, salary cuts and wage freezes [and] more than 100,000 job seekers have been unemployed for months on end.” Illinois followed a somewhat similar path. For [URL="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-15/news/ct-met-pension-code-20111216_1_pension-system-pension-plans-tribune-wgn-tv-analysis"]years[/URL], lawmakers did not make the full actuarially required pension payments, causing severe funding shortages in the state's pension system. While lawmakers said there was little money to meet pension obligations, Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn [URL="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-16/business/chi-quinn-signs-searscme-tax-breaks-into-law-20111216_1_cme-and-cboe-sears-cme-employee-income-taxes"]signed[/URL] a corporate tax cut in 2011 that is projected to cost the state more than $370 million a year in lost revenue. Two years after signing that bill, as pension funding gaps swelled, Quinn [URL="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-12-05/news/chi-illinois-pension-bill-signing-20131205_1_pension-measure-illinois-supreme-court-gay-marriage-law"]signed[/URL] legislation slashing public employees' retirement benefits. An Illinois judge last month [URL="http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/illinois-pension-reform-law-unconstitutional-judge-rules/fri-11212014-213pm"]ruled[/URL] that the legislation violated the state's constitution, though the ruling is being [URL="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-illinois-pension-lawsuit-met-1211-20141210-story.html"]appealed[/URL]. [/quote] [url]http://www.ibtimes.com/reporters/david-sirota[/url] <- More on pension issues in general Sirota is basically the go-to guy when it comes to reporting on public pensions, because nobody else does it. This is becoming a common pattern in many Republican-controlled states. Big tax cuts and corporate handouts are passed, which puts the state in the red. The budget problems are given a few years to fester, then the governor starts telling people "Sorry, times are tough, we have no choice but to start taking it out of pensions". Nobody ever seems to remember that the budget problems are mostly created by legislative policy. Another angle to the story is Wall Street. Public pensions are, to describe it simply, big lumps of money that gets put into investments so as to grow over time and maintain the ability to pay out benefits. Managing the way these pensions are invested is big business. Hedge funds collect big fees to manage pensions...then their investments consistently underperform the simple index funds that those pensions [I]should[/I] have been put into. The managing firms get rich, but the pension itself suffers. Additionally, the governors that are pushing to cut pensions and transfer their management into private hands are often collecting huge campaign contributions from those very firms. Chris Christie and his wife are majorly in bed with the hedge funds. Meanwhile, in DC, the cromnibus spending bill contained a measure that now allows pensions to duck their previous legal responsibilities and cut benefits whenever they want to, and a million people are going to see pension cuts as a result. Massive lobbying/corruption + Governors sucking money away + Wall Street takeover of public pensions + Congressional deregulation...well, I think we can all do the math. Bad times ahead for retired public sector workers. This is boring and arcane, but important. There are millions of retirees in the US who are dependent on their pensions, and in many cases those pensions are hardly a fortune. In Indiana, for example, a full-career retiree only gets about $18k a year.
That... Or you could take like 5-15% of the earnings of every business doing business in Kansas using kansases infastructure based on many factors,take that cash and use that to cover shortfalls
[quote]Now, Republicans are rethinking how aggressive they can be on taxes in light of the projected $279 million revenue gap that’s plaguing Kansas this year — shortfalls that resulted in the state’s credit rating being downgraded and nearly booted the Republican from office in a state that bleeds red.[/quote] [URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/gop-learns-lessons-from-brownbacks-tax-scare-113806.html?hp=t1_r"]Big article on this on Politico too[/URL] Well, cutting taxes did help your budget. Helped it collapse.
[QUOTE=Code3Response;46800890][URL="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/gop-learns-lessons-from-brownbacks-tax-scare-113806.html?hp=t1_r"]Big article on this on Politico too[/URL] Well, cutting taxes did help your budget. Helped it collapse.[/QUOTE] Kansas made their bed (of corn husks and cow shit, I assume?) by overwhelmingly voting for extremist Republicans, and now they get to lie in it. They operate on a cycle of dramatic tax cuts, then crisis-motivated cuts to services when the chickens come home to roost. People buy the "Extraordinary times call for us all to sacrifice" rhetoric, but forget who caused the shortfalls and why. Hint: Kansas' budget isn't in trouble because of pensions. Pension expenses, on average, are only a few percentage points of a state's budget.
Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] ah yes because every single person who lives in Kansas is ecstatic that those people were elected :downs:
[QUOTE=.Isak.;46801132]ah yes because every single person who lives in Kansas is ecstatic that those people were elected :downs:[/QUOTE] Well, they do keep consistently delivering gubernatorial elections and overwhelming legislature majorities to the GOP.
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] I live in Kansas, and honestly I think you can apply the 'voting in sociopaths/idiots' statement to a large amount of the U.S., not just this state.
[QUOTE=RikohZX;46801395]I live in Kansas, and honestly I think you can apply the 'voting in sociopaths/idiots' statement to a large amount of the U.S., not just this state.[/QUOTE] I live in Pennsylvania, and I would like to apologise for Rick Santorum. I don't know how he got out...
Kansas's tax situation is a trainwreck. It's disgusting to look at but facsinating since often you don't see government doing these ridiculous "experiments"
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] not to sound like a cynic, but that essentially describes every politician in recent history (maybe even ever).
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] i hope you don't like corn or wheat or any products containing it
There was no way to vote him out, people detest him but will vote the party line anyway. It wasn't even close like Roberts/Orman was and even that went to shit, thanks to the hilarious amount of college students who think they are above politics, because neither candidate actively supports the latest unimportant liberal crusade of the day.
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] Yeah man, I'm just gonna kill myself because I happen to live in Kansas, and because the people who vote red happen to constitute a larger and [i]disgruntled[/i] (thereby making their candidate choices more reactionary) voice than I do. Never mind my vote. Never mind trying to change anything. I'll just give up. Who's the sociopath here again?
Anyone who doesn't know this or live in America: this guy has singlehandedly fucked the entire state budget. We jokingly call Kansas 'Brownbackistan' now. I live in the one island of Democratic liberals in the whole state. Fuck this place, man.
[QUOTE=PaperBurrito;46803451]Anyone who doesn't know this or live in America: this guy has singlehandedly fucked the entire state budget. We jokingly call Kansas '[B]Brownbackistan[/B]' now. I live in the one island of Democratic liberals in the whole state. Fuck this place, man.[/QUOTE] Hahaha. Maybe I should get on the phone with the UN and start putting together an aid mission.
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;46801095]Kansas can fucking burn, they deserve it. Too fucking stupid to stop voting in sociopaths who want to drain everything from them. Too stupid to live.[/QUOTE] That's not very nice. Not all of us voted for this guy.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;46801210]Well, they do keep consistently delivering gubernatorial elections and overwhelming legislature majorities to the GOP.[/QUOTE] It's almost as if the GOP offers the majority what they want...
[QUOTE=darunner;46804006]It's almost as if the GOP offers the majority what they want...[/QUOTE] But clearly not what is in their best interest, and not what was advertised in their campaigns. I'm pretty sure Brownback and his buddies didn't run on a platform of "We'll raid your pensions to provide handouts to corporations!"
No politician runs on the negative aspects of their ideas. They campaigned on lower taxes, and they delivered.
My favorite part about this guy is how he came to office initially because our previous governor, Kathleen Sebelius, was appointed secretary of education. She was doing wonders for the state and then this guy fucked it all up beyond repair. The best part about the state, though, is that literally 0 people care about the state itself and are all in it for any small benefit to themselves, and fuck all to consequences later. See: Small business owners that got this guy reelected in the first place. Also fucking hell I forgot I wasn't registered to vote here so I couldn't cast my futile vote against him.
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