Fair Taxes For Kansans

Governor Brownback's plan to change the State Income Tax code would decrease the tax rate on taxpayers earning more than $30,000 from 6.45% to 4.9% (1.55% decrease), while lowering the rate on those earning less than $30,000 from 3.5% to 3% (0.5% decrease). Furthermore, Brownback would pay for the tax cuts by eliminating 23 deductions from the state tax code, including the Adoption Credit, the Child Day Care Assistance Credit and the Earned Income Credit. In addition, he would eliminate itemized deductions including the Home Mortgage Deduction, which would adversely affect middle class homeowners. Under Brownback’s plan, taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $25,000 or less would actually see an effective increase in their state income taxes. Brownback is continuing an increased sales tax rate of 6.3% (from 5.7%) that would attempt to prevent revenue shortfalls. However, the sales tax and local property taxes, which will necessarily increase to fund services such as public schools, are far more regressive taxes than income taxes, and thus will also be paid by low and middle income Kansans.