To the editor:
Responses to my previous letter were quite varied; what concerns me is the belief that a tax increase was necessary.
The budget that Rep. Bob Brookens supported spends $204.5 million more than last year, according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department.
It estimates the increase will cost taxpayers $303.6 million next year. So more than two-thirds of the tax increase went to new spending.
The combined sales tax in the city of Marion is now 8.5%, which is half a percent higher than the tax on alcohol. With Brookens’ support, citizens now pay more tax on bread than wine.
Before the recession, state spending increased by an average of 8 percent a year for five years. Unless Kansans were also receiving yearly pay raises of eight percent, that kind of spending simply couldn’t be sustained.
Brookens contended that increasing the sales tax was necessary to avoid a property tax increase, but a plan he rejected clearly shows this wasn’t the case. The Legislative Research Department estimated that selling 1 percent of $16 billion in state assets would have yielded $160 million that wouldn’t have had to come from taxpayers’ pockets.
Next year’s budget is already projected to have a $200 million deficit. The governor just borrowed $700 million to cover expenses, and we’re not even a month into the current fiscal year. How will Brookens vote to solve these problems? Another tax increase? Where does it end?
I know Brookens and his family and they are good people, but I cannot support his policies.
James Meier
Whitewater