It's getting worse in Kansas

Governor Sam Brownback has made the state of Kansas a grand social, economic, and political experiment.

It's not going well at all.  Which is to be expected, from how radical the experiment is.  But some lessons have to be learned the hard way, and the people of Kansas are learning this one.

Can't afford more tax cuts

Excerpted:

In a new poll taken by KSN News, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is behind likely Democratic Party nominee and Kansas Rep. Paul Davis by six points. 

Republicans across the state fare better in their races. 

In the gubernatorial race, Davis has an advantage in Kansas City and Wichita. At this time, he's beating Brownback by 15 percent in the Wichita area and leads Brownback by three percent among voters in the Kansas City metro area. Brownback's strength comes from Western Kansas, where he leads Davis by 16 points. 

Another factor: The female vote. Davis is leading Brownback by 14 points among women, while Brownback leads by one percent among men. Davis also has made a sizable dent among Brownback's Republican support, according to the poll. Davis receives 26 percent of support from registered Republican voters. On the other hand, Brownback received six percent of support from Democrats in the poll.

So I wonder how it's going for Governor Sam?

Kansas voting poll results (as of June 25th):

The state reported this week that its tax collections for June were $28 million less than estimates. Counting the huge revenue drops in April and May, the state has collected $338 million less than expected (and $726 million less than it collected the previous fiscal year). 

The drop in collections wipes out nearly all the cash reserves that Brownback and the Legislature were counting on for this new fiscal year. So unless the state’s revenue collections for the next 12 months are on target, which seems unlikely, the state could be forced to make midyear spending cuts, which can be painful. 

But that’s not the worst of it. Because this fiscal year’s budget was already projected to spend about $320 million more than the estimated revenue, the loss of the cash reserves means that the next fiscal year’s budget (which the Legislature will draft next session) would need major spending cuts or tax increases just to get to zero, let alone return the cash reserves to the statutorily required level of about $500 million. 

.............. 

This growing imbalance, along with the state’s sluggish economic recovery compared with its peers, was why Moody’s Investors Service downgraded both the state’s and the Kansas Department of Transportation’s bond ratings.

Sooo... it might appear that Kansans, at least some of them (the women, those interested in education, the ones interested in the future of the state as a viable entity) are coming to their senses.