State collects extra revenue, boosting Sebelius
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The state collected $94 million more than anticipated in September, good news for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as she touts Kansas’ economy as a reason enough for a second term.
Republicans and anti-tax activists repeatedly have questioned the Democratic governor’s optimistic assessment of the economy. GOP challenger Jim Barnett has proposed a series of income and estate tax cuts to stimulate what he describes as a sluggish economy.
Sebelius has cited better-than-anticipated revenues as evidence Kansas has a robust economy.
“We’re encouraged that our revenues seem to keep growing, and we’re very proud of the progress that has been made, and we hope that this continues,” Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said Tuesday. “We’ve been very clear about the way we see the economy. We have a much more positive outlook.”
Barnett argues that the economy isn’t as strong as Sebelius says and questions whether the state can afford a plan approved this year to phase in a $541 million increase in aid to public schools over three years. While September’s unexpected revenues may help with that problem, they don’t solve it, said Barnett spokesman Rodger Woods.
“The school finance bill that passed and was signed by the governor, the increased revenue projections still aren’t going to be enough to pay for it,” Woods said.
The latest revenue figures were in a report from the Kansas Legislative Research Department. The state expected to collect $461 million in general revenues in September but collected more than $555 million instead — a 20 percent difference.
For the current fiscal year, from July 1 through Sept. 30, revenues were $1.3 billion, or nearly $112 million more than anticipated. The difference was 9 percent.
“I think the economy is doing much better,” said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer. “Things are definitely in a very stable environment.”
But Alan Cobb, state director of Americans for Prosperity, said Kansas’ economy isn’t healthy because it isn’t creating private-sector jobs.
Kansas Department of Labor figures showed that the number of nongovernment, nonfarm jobs dropped in August by about 2,800, or 0.3 percent, compared with August 2005. The state still saw overall job growth, largely because of a rise in government employment.
“It still means we’re still languishing, still down near the bottom,” Cobb said. “Any state that has a loss of private-sector jobs doesn’t have a robust economy.”
As for the better-than-anticipated revenues in September, Cobb said, “It’s not bad news, but it means that our estimators didn’t do a very good job.”
On the Net:
State revenues report: skyways.lib.ks.us
Sebelius campaign: www.ksgovernor.com
Barnett campaign: www.barnettforgovernor.com