Economics
Brownback Faces Blowback as Kansas Tax Cuts Shutter Classrooms
The financial impact of keeping the tax-cut pledge finds Kansas school districts at the political epicenter of the governor’s race.
Sam Brownback, governor of Kansas, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview inside the Bloomberg Link during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, U.S., on Tuesday Aug. 28, 2012.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Public schools in Kansas have closed classrooms, fired teachers, increased class sizes and raised local property levies following statewide tax cuts, undermining the re-election bid of Republican Governor Sam Brownback, the man who promised them.
The financial impact of keeping the tax-cut pledge finds Kansas school districts at the political epicenter of the Nov. 4 governor’s race. The 58-year-old Brownback, who won 63 percent of the vote four years ago, is locked in a tight race against Democratic state Representative Paul Davis.