Liberals threw every punch they had at Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback last fall, hoping to unseat the Republican for the sin of cutting tax rates to stimulate job growth and economic revival. Guess who's still standing?
The tax cut is working. Labor Department data show job growth in Kansas tied with Utah as the fastest in the nation in February.
Back in 2012, Brownback cut the highest income-tax rate from 6.4% to 4.8% with the goal of eventually eliminating the state income tax entirely. The tax on small business income was zeroed out. It was denounced as "trickle-down economics," though the state's unemployment rate is now down to 4.5%.
"The number one complaint I'm hearing now," Brownback tells us, "is we can't find the workers. That's a good problem to have."
Where the jobs are really showing up is on the Kansas side of Kansas City. Because tax rates are lower in Kansas than in Missouri, the Kansas side of the metro area produced twice as many jobs as the Missouri side from 2012 to 2014.
Wages are also growing in Kansas. Before the tax cut, workers on KC's Kansas side earned 40 cents an hour more than Missouri workers. Now the gap is $3.
Meanwhile, in the tax hell of California, local sales taxes in several towns and counties have popped above 10 percent. Couple that with extremely high state income and gas taxes, and other fees such as car registration, and the drag on the economy will grow. Here, your money is the state's first, and whatever they feel inclined to leave to you is what you have to live on. Now, in some unfortunate locations, 10 percent of that meager remainder is now snatched away by our rulers to waste or give away to whatever favored constituency they want.
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