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| Kan. suspends income tax refunds, may miss payroll |
| 2009-02-17 |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 KSU Wildcat is absolutely right, in addition the gov wants to raise revenue with an increased tax on tobacco - which would work yet they are trying to statewide ban smoking at the very place people smoke the most; bars (see also additional revenue from beverage purchase). Then you have KU rennovate its sports facilities for tens of millions and then state gave them money to rennovate student bathrooms etc. its just bad financial management at the governor's position. This is not news; it has been flagged for about 6 months now - but sebelius dropped the soap and campaigned for obama. She is nothing more than a career politician who sees her tenure in this state as just one more hoop to jump through before national politics. Her original idea was to run for Brownback's senate seat but found she would get hammered at the polls her only out is to be named into a federal position. This is a political move pure and simple. Also in the works is county redrawing. (posted last Friday, no mo uro asked why 140 years, well it sounds cool). During sebelius' tenure (we all know) the money flows east to the constituants. Democrat politics pure and simple (conservative independant here, out here we have fine representatives from both parties and don't want to get mucked into the poor spending and social policies of Wichita and to the east; Wichita which raises money for schools then spends millions on a park for example). Sebelius is a poor leader, Greensburg tornado she consulting with the democrat leadership before making any decisions about what to do, our federal level public service members were visiting a 24 hours before the gov even mentioned anything on TV. All she has to do is follow legal procedure but she is trying the same tactic we are seeing on the federal level of scare and spend outside of proper budget procedure; Kansas Law. This is not, repeat not, Republicans holding payroll hostage. IMHO, the deal about the coal plant - it was slated to pass but then suddenly there was an environment issue, sierra club and everything. Read like a shakedown for under table games which the company got too expensive/got tired of playing. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-02-17 12:54 |
| #3 This is embarrasing for us conservative Kansans. Fox news had it right this morning in their interview with Dennis McKinny. Following article sums up the situation very well. It is from National Review Online one of the best sources of information in the blogosphere. That Kansas Comedy [Denis Boyles] The Drudge-driven story in Kansas, that state tax returns are on hold, is, of course, not what it seems. The state is not really going to stop funding schools, close the hospitals, and start starving old folks, as local news reports have suggested. Instead, the story is an example of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius's skill at playing the Kansas media the way Joshua Bell saws a fiddle — while the state GOP plays it like Cap'n Hook. The state's broke and, like many of us, has been living on credit. It's against the law in Kansas to run up a deficit — and Sebelius has pushed that deficit to record levels — but when things get tight, there's a legal way to gain a little change to get by. Sebelius knew about this coming shortfall because the state legislature has been telling her about it for months. Instead of following the rules, she let the clock run out, cancelled a meeting to discuss the problem with legislative leaders, and then sent out a press release claiming the poor would soon die because Republicans had made her stop sending people their tax refunds. The press did the rest. But as Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal, an expert in state constitutional law, told Kansas Liberty, a statewide news site, "Kansas for years has had on the books procedures a governor can follow in times like these, but she's refused to exercise those options, to the detriment of the state. She's better than that." What Sebelius wanted the lawmakers to do, he said, was against the law. Her motive? A budget bill has to be signed, and it contains cuts in programs Sebelius likes. Critics say she's trying to buy time and will sit on the budget for as long as possible once it crosses her desk, something she herself has promised to do, saying she's worried about "errors" in the budget. The budget she proposed, meanwhile, would have resulted in an illegal deficit of many millions of dollars. Meanwhile, O'Neal's encouraging state employees who are worried about getting their paychecks to call the governor. "They’re capable of making payroll if they choose to do it," O’Neal said. — Denis Boyles is the author, most recently, of Superior, Nebraska. He directs the Brouzils Seminars and is completing a book on early twentieth-century publishing for Knopf. 02/17 08:49 AM |
| Posted by: bman 2009-02-17 10:49 |
| #2 Kathleen you ignorant slut! By her own hand she allowed $20 BILLION in new business to be postponed or walk away to other states. In order to make herself more marketable to the Messiah she personally hosed a $3+ BILLION coal fired plant project in western Kansas. That in turn caused a $16 BILLION refinery project to walk away because this administration has it's head firmly planted up it's collective a$$. |
| Posted by: Everyday a Wildcat(KSU) 2009-02-17 08:18 |
| #1 California's doing the same thing; expect this 'innovation' to spread... |
| Posted by: Raj 2009-02-17 08:10 |