I read the Op-Ed piece by Sam Williams, KS Dept of Revenue Secretary, and found the entire piece quite negative. While the writer says "your employer will use new withholding tables to calculate how much additional money to take from your paycheck to pay your larger tax liability." And "Because the tax law is retroactive to January 1, you now owe more taxes on what you’ve earned so far this year." Oh no! It all sounds really dreadful! Where is the benefit, Secretary Williams?
Another claim: "Small businesses were previously exempt from paying income taxes to drive job creation and economic growth in Kansas." Those small businesses will now have to pay taxes so that the state doesn't go under due to the heavy debt imposed by the governor's experiment in lowering taxes and hoping to create more jobs. Instead, the state has borrowed heavily from the Transportation Dept; health and human services have been cut, and the financial rating agencies like Standard and Poor's have steadily downgraded Kansas rating. More jobs? Not so much. But fortunately for him (and us), he is going to Washington DC, on to greater exploits.
And "Governor Brownback’s previous tax plan eliminated income taxes for nearly 400,000 of the poorest Kansans. The legislature’s new tax hike raises money by shrinking this exemption." Actually, the "poorest Kansans" have suffered a good deal through the KanCare Medicaid program, with cuts to the programs to offset the tax exemptions for LLC's. And what about Medicaid Expansion, where the state could gain millions of dollars from the Federal government under the Affordable Care Act, to assist 150,000 Kansans to obtain health insurance? No, that was not in the cards under the governor.
Barbara Johnston,
Baldwin City
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