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Kansas Budget Shortfall
Letter to the Editor Johnson County Sun
Dear Steve Rose,
I read your editorial today with incredulity. Your answer to the Kansas
budget shortfall is raising taxes in an economic downturn? Obviously,
Economics 101 isn't taught in journalism school.
Why is it that taxpayers are always asked to give more (do with less) when
governments never consider cutbacks?
Here's a simple solution, and I start with some statistics I gleaned from
the internet (something newspapers don't want to publish):
Total population of Kansas: 2.8 million
Total personal income in Kansas last year: $77 billion
Average income per capita: $27,500
Total number of state and local government workers: 290,000
These numbers do not include the number of U.S. Federal Government workers.
More than 1 out of 10 people in Kansas work for the government.
An economics lesson: These government workers produce nothing and do not
pay taxes. The money they send to the government on April 15 is recycled
tax money that was paid from the private sector. The government doesn't
produce anything that goes back into the economy. They do produce
regulations and laws that make it more difficult for a business to be
competitive and profitable. Do the GM, Ford and Chrysler problems ring a
bell?
Here's the simple solution to the Kansas shortfall:
1) Fire 10% of the government workforce in Kansas, starting at the top
including the Governors office. Law enforcement and public safety workers
should be excluded. In other words, I'm talking about bureaucrats who make
a lot more than the average per capita income of $27,500.
2) When a government worker dies or retires, don't replace them. Let the
government learn to do with less.
3) Cut taxes - personal and business.
Oh my! Where are these fired bureaucrats going to find jobs? I heard a
joke once that goes like this: Before a government worker is hired, they
are given a test. If they answer more than 50% of the questions correctly,
they aren't hired. Seriously, if someone works for the government
they probably aren't qualified for a real job. But if they are qualified,
someone will hire them because the tax cut will produce more jobs and
opportunities.
Good luck with the Sun. Newspapers are going down the tubes. Blame it on
the internet if you will. But I know a growing number of business people
who don't subscribe to and won't advertise in the KC Star out of principle.
By doing so, we would be supporting their left wing editorial page. I hope
the same doesn't happen to you.
Skip Talley
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