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Debt limits suspended to pay for tax cuts [Kansas]
Witchita Eagle ^ | 18 December 2015 | H. Edward Flentje

Posted on 12/21/2015 8:04:52 AM PST by Lorianne

Right-wing Republican lawmakers have operated under the radar to suspend all statutory limits on highway debt, and that unprecedented authority was recently used to issue record-breaking levels of long-term debt to pay for their reckless income tax cuts this year and next.

Six lines buried deep in a 700-page appropriation bill last spring gave the Kansas Department of Transportation unlimited authority to issue debt, and in early December, without public disclosure, the agency used that authority to issue $400 million in highway bonds.

State law requires those debt proceeds to be used for improving state highways, but do not expect that to happen. Lawmakers directed that $400 million and more be swept from the highway fund to help pay for the $700 million dip in state revenues caused by income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013.

The $400 million in new highway debt represents the largest single highway bond in state history and bumps up total outstanding highway debt to $2.1 billion, also a state record. The size of the bond issue was boosted 60 percent higher than planned last January in order to stabilize at least temporarily the precarious condition of state finances.

(Excerpt) Read more at kansas.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: mediabias

1 posted on 12/21/2015 8:04:52 AM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
"Never before in state history has a state agency been granted unlimited powers to issue debt. Prior to this extraordinary action, state lawmakers had carefully placed specific limits on the state’s ability to borrow money. KDOT’s authority to issue unlimited debt continues through this fiscal year and next, so additional highway bonds could be issued at any time over the next 18 months."
2 posted on 12/21/2015 8:05:47 AM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

Go Brownback. Smash all the Democrats and Rinos in the face. Smash ‘em as hard as you can.


3 posted on 12/21/2015 8:11:51 AM PST by vbmoneyspender
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To: vbmoneyspender

it’s amazing how those willing to break budgets for welfare and school spending get all haughty when someone else tries a new accounting gimmick!


4 posted on 12/21/2015 8:16:31 AM PST by gr8eman (Don't waste your energy trying to understand commies. Use it to defeat them!)
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To: Lorianne

In Kansas if you lower the increase to the schools you have “cut school funding.” There is nothing the media in Kansas can say that I would trust. I trust Brownback more than any of the partisans in the media.


5 posted on 12/21/2015 8:18:49 AM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: Lorianne

Tax cuts are not a “cost,” so there is no need to “pay for them.”

In terms of the budgetary impact, governments always take in MORE revenue after they cut taxes!


6 posted on 12/21/2015 8:24:53 AM PST by GodAndCountryFirst
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

True, but the title should be: Debt limits suspended to pay for highways

It is not fiscally responsible.


7 posted on 12/21/2015 8:29:02 AM PST by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne
Right-wing Republican lawmakers have operated under the radar to suspend all statutory limits on highway debt, and that unprecedented authority was recently used to issue record-breaking levels of long-term debt to pay for their reckless income tax cuts this year and next.

Is this supposed to be "journalism" or a biased hatchet job? Also, the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts so stimulated the economy that tax receipts actually increased. The Laffer Curve suggests the same result. Hopefully, this Left-winged idiot at least drops the pretense of being a journalist.

8 posted on 12/21/2015 8:33:04 AM PST by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: Lorianne

Good point about the title.

I don’t get the highway spending in Kansas. It is like the opposite of Missouri. In Missouri the roads are terrible but never get fixed. In Kansas the roads are great but get fixed when there is nothing wrong with them (not always, but sometimes).


9 posted on 12/21/2015 8:33:11 AM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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To: GodAndCountryFirst

#$@#$@#$ing warped thinking.


10 posted on 12/21/2015 8:46:54 AM PST by dp0622 (..)
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To: vbmoneyspender

The budget deficit did not start with Brownback.

Let’s see now, who was governor in 2008?


11 posted on 12/21/2015 9:00:54 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Lorianne

long-term debt to pay for their reckless income tax cuts this year and next.

You do not pay for a tax cut. Its a cut. Not a bill. You pay for spending.


12 posted on 12/21/2015 9:12:39 AM PST by 48th SPS Crusader (I am an American. Not a Republican or a Democrat)
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To: Lorianne

Sounds like they have a spending problem


13 posted on 12/21/2015 9:33:37 AM PST by Steven Tyler
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To: econjack

Just THINK of the boon if govt actually followed the Constitution!! The tax cut % ALONE that would happen if just the 5th A. were followed. If the People were obligated to live with the responsibilities of their own actions and request help from those whom agree to do so VOLUNTARILY, instead of being economically enslaved by legal theft by an all too real gun to the head....

Sorry, I just arrived in CO and was sampling their new snack foods. I have NO idea what just happened...


14 posted on 12/21/2015 10:08:44 AM PST by i_robot73 ("A man chooses. A slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan)
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To: i_robot73

How ‘bout: Any Congressman who votes for a budget that results in an increase in the debt of 3% or more cannot run for reelection.


15 posted on 12/21/2015 12:25:55 PM PST by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: econjack

That does nothing for the revolving door of elected > lobbyist > pay-2-play-job > retire on taxpayer teat.

IMO, unless you can pull the lever, there should be NO ability to lobby, donate, aide, etc. Any/all failures to log/verify political donations require immediate removal from the race/office and a fine of $1M/violation (adj. for inflation) to be paid personally by the official. With any/all taxpayer enumeration/benefits/perks void and null.

Make it *HURT*


16 posted on 12/21/2015 5:30:32 PM PST by i_robot73 ("A man chooses. A slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan)
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To: Lorianne

Spending money you don’t have is okay, but tax cuts are “reckless.”

Uh huh.


17 posted on 12/23/2015 11:09:18 AM PST by IronJack
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