Let the insanity begin afresh — the Kansas Legislature is back in session.

I lost track of how much needs to be cut or added to balance the state budget about three missed revenue estimates and a couple hundred million dollars ago. The governor and legislature appeared oblivious to any suggestions small business tax cuts that created the huge deficits should be trimmed, so I became numb to the string of ridiculous and damaging alternatives they proposed, and in some cases, enacted.

They took a break, and now they’re back. The first idea to avoid admitting the failure of tax cuts that send millions to out-of-states doing business in Kansas is a doozy.

Instead of trying to recoup that lost revenue from people who aren’t Kansans, they’re going after Kansas property owners. It’s a privilege to own land in the Sunflower State, the Kansas Senate says, and that means landowners should pay for that privilege.

Agriculture will take the biggest brunt of the $3 an acre excise tax if it passes, after dodging an earlier tax bullet that could have increased property taxes for farmers and ranchers by more than 400 percent. Both are bad ideas that should never have been introduced, and the new one deserves the same fate as the original.

-- david colburn