Wagnon blames tax cuts for state woes

[ccharles000]

Kansas would not have a budget crisis if the state Legislature had been less generous with tax cuts and exemptions, according to figures presented Friday by Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon.

In a keynote speech at a Wichita State University event, Wagnon said her staff calculated that without tax cuts and exemptions passed since 1995 by the Republican-controlled Legislature, the state would have $1 billion more in income this year. That's the same amount as the 2010 budget shortfall.

Overall, tax cuts and exemptions have cost the state $10.9 billion since 1995, said Wagnon, a Democrat.

"That's our rainy day fund, or would have been our rainy day fund; we don't have a rainy day fund and it sure is raining," she said. "It's hard to get that lesson across that you can't keep doing tax cuts and waiting for it to produce more revenue, because at this point, it's producing less revenue."

http://www.kansas.com/news/legislature/story/1006711.html