Hot damned this CEO is furious with Sam Brownback, and pens a letter telling us exactly what is the matter with Kansas and why his growing company is getting the hell out of there:
Kansas has become a test center of “trickle down” economics, espoused by economist Arthur Laffer during the Reagan years. Nowhere has there been as thorough an implementation of Laffer’s policy recommendations… and nowhere has there been as dramatic a failure of government.
Under Brownback’s direction, Kansas implemented an unprecedented tax cut in 2012, eliminating taxes for LLCs and professional firms (for full disclosure, PHI is a C Corporation) and making the largest cuts in the highest tax brackets. He shifted taxes to create a heavier burden on property and sales taxes, which typically represent a larger burden on lower income brackets. Brownback declared that this tax cut would be a “shot of adrenaline” for the Kansas economy, but the reality is that the tax cuts have had the opposite effect. Kansas lags neighboring states in job growth. For 11 of the last 12 months, Kansas has dramatically missed revenue targets, falling deeper in debt and facing another round of degraded bond ratings.
The worst part is that the burdens for the shortfalls rest on the shoulders of those who can least afford it – children and the developmentally disabled.
One of Brownback’s first actions was to close the Lawrence office for Kansas Social & Rehabilitation Services (SRS). This agency provided services for low-income children and the developmentally disabled, and access to the Lawrence office was critical for people in that community to receive services. Their only option was to try to figure out how to get transportation to the Topeka SRS office, thirty miles away. Not an easy task. The closure of the Lawrence office was supposed to save the state $400,000 per year.
At the same time, Brownback decided to pursue a personal vendetta against the Kansas Bioscience Authority, an organization created to spur the economic development of bioscience companies in Kansas. Brownback was convinced that funds were being misused, so he decided we needed to spend over $400,000 (conveniently, the same amount that could have kept the Lawrence SRS office open) on lawyers and auditors to pour over the KBA books. In the end, they found a total of $5,000 in misused funds, which the former KBA president repaid with a personal check. It all came down to priorities – pursue a personal vendetta at the expense of the disabled.
The developmentally disabled continued to suffer when Brownback’s administration pushed a program to privatize the state’s Medicaid program KanCare while at the same time refusing millions of dollars in federal support to expand Medicaid services. Now, three insurance companies administer KanCare as a profit center, and the results are dramatic – significant delays in determining eligibility, inexplicable loss of coverage, caseloads increased, providers struggling to get paid.
At the beginning of 2016, over 17,000 Medicaid applications were waiting for approval, 8,000 of which were well beyond the federally mandated 45-day threshold for processing. Pregnant women, who would have received services by default under the previous Medicaid plan in Kansas, were now waiting 4+ months for services, often exceeding the term of their pregnancy by the time services were authorized.
The funding problems got so bad that Osawatomie State Hospital’s mental health ward had to significantly cut staffing. Over 40% of their staff positions were dormant, leaving the remaining staff overworked and unprepared. This understaffing resulted in an improperly released patient murdering a 61-year-old man, and a hospital worker was raped, having to rely on other patients to save her. In January 2016, the Osawatomie State Hospital lost its certification to provide mental health services, cutting off federal funding that counted for roughly half of the hospital’s revenue. It is unclear what will happen to the patients and staff at Osawatomie State Hospital, leaving the fates of the patients in limbo.
The state’s public education system, once considered one of the best in the nation, hasn’t been spared, either. You’ll hear claims from Kansas officials that funding to education is at an all time high, but it’s just an accounting trick – they chose to shuffle money for special education and retirement funds through the schools so it could appear as an increase on the books. Salary freezes, underfunding to the point of being ruled unconstitutional, laws allowing teachers to be imprisoned for introducing potentially “offensive” content, cuts and delays in $100 million in payments to the state-run retirement fund, and legislation specifically targeted to cripple the Kansas teacher’s union are all part of an ongoing effort to undermine the public education system in Kansas. Instead, the Brownback administration plans to offer vouchers to encourage families to send their children to private and religious schools.
To double down on these policies, Brownback is now ignoring the $250 million shortfall predicted for 2016, instead opting for headlines about closing Kansas to refugees and blaming the “liberal media” for the state’s economic woes.
Republicans are what is wrong with Kansas.
via the Great Orange Satan)
dedc79
We don’t need to imagine what the country will look like if the Republicans take the White House again – we need just look to Kansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana (the last of which is finally back on the mend with a Democratic governor).
Mike in NC
Looks like Brownback will have the inside edge among GOP presidential candidates in 2020. Cruz and Rubio will fail to pass the new litmus tests for what is a True Conservative.
Aardvark Cheeselog
IOW a librul squish (probably an SJW really), and not a real job creator. Nothing to see here, folks.
Mary G
Hillary is ahead in the latest poll of Kansas 43 to 36 for Trump and 21 undecided!
rikyrah
This is indeed the problems with Kansas..
but, they voted for the man……
Gelfling545
@Mary G: I’d read that as 43 Hillary, 36 Trump, 21 staying home being as it’s Kansas & voting Dem is beyond the pale.
Betty Cracker
Kudos to Mr. Blackwood!
C. Isaac
@Mary G:
You think that’s bad?
Try this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/13/this-new-poll-utah-poll-is-amazingly-bad-for-donald-trump/
Utah:
Clinton – 35%
Trump – 35%
Johnson (L) – 13%
Yes. UTAH.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
And let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars he has wasted hiring outside law firms to fight marriage equality, even after the Supreme Court ruling. That goes from, “I gave a good try, but lost.” to, “I’m mean and hate gays.”
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah:
Twice!
Elizabelle
Pathfinder is moving to Missouri.
Mary G
@C. Isaac: LOL! Mormons don’t like Trump, following Mittens and remembering their own history of being persecuted for religion.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Exactly. And I would not say that I have no sympathy because the people of Kansas are getting what they asked for. But this is an example of the states as testing labs of democracy. If people want to see the demolition of Kansas public education because they believe that faith based ignorance is equivalent to actual education, there is not much to be done, unless you want to impose “proper values” on those who are unwilling to see the light. The best you can do is to provide a means for Democrats and other alternative political entities to make their case for a better future, and to provide a way out of the madness for those who don’t wish to live in this Kansas fool’s paradise.
Dadadadadadada
@Gelfling545: 43 for Clinton, 36 for Trump, 21 going to get barred from voting because of those awful GOP-spawned voter-ID laws.
Villago Delenda Est
Brownback and his ilk are essentially criminals.
Treat them as such.
gene108
@Anastasio Beaverhausen:
”
Something similar got mentioned in the letter.
Leto
Pretty much sums it up.
Bubblegum Tate
Fuck yes, Jeff Blackwood!
Gimlet
Is there enough money for Republican law firms to defend state laws against abortion, bathrooms, gays etc.?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
FIFY.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gimlet: They’ll find the money somewhere, even if they have to close down wings of the state penitentiary and put a 10% tax on candy bars to do it.
qwerty42
The destruction of the state seems be be carried out by weird “free market”/”Laffer Curve” ideologues. I do not doubt the state gov’t is engaging in financial chicanery to avoid facing the music. I have heard they are looking into having the Kansas Dept of Transportation (KDOT) issue bonds which will NOT be used for roads, bridges, etc, will supplement the general fund. When those come due, I assume the state will have to declare bankruptcy. This is the dystopia they offer the rest of the country.
rikyrah
Trump just pretty much called the GOP leadership a bunch of punk azz mitches.
Mnemosyne
@Gelfling545:
Hey, if they stay home rather than vote for Trump, that’s a net gain for Democrats. Better, in some ways, because they won’t be voting for down-ticket Republicans either.
Gimlet
Maybe Brownback can aggressively use forfeiture – seizure laws to fund the state government. Convert highways to toll roads. Privatize as many state agencies as he can and sell honorary titles like “Baron”, etc.
TooManyJens
And Bruce Rauner is trying to bring Brownback’s style of leadership to Illinois. We may be forced to move in a year or so if the budget situation doesn’t get resolved, and it it weren’t for our family here I’d be happy to go.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@rikyrah:
twice?
Neutron Flux
@Villago Delenda Est:
Hungry Joe
Brownback is doing a damned good job, because everything is going according to plan: Tax burdens shifted to the lower classes, education wrecked, across-the-board privatization in the works. Deficits? Just shut down more public this-and-that, slide a little money from here over to there — in the books, at least — maybe movie a decimal point or two (cf. Max Bialystock), and Kansas is good to go.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
This.
If they stay home or vote for Gary Johnson, it doesn’t matter if they vote for Hillary.
Just that they don’t vote for Trump.
jonas
@C. Isaac: I wasn’t actually too surprised by this. 35% is probably Hillary’s ceiling in Utah. Trump is just so low for a red state because Mormons — led, e.g., by Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney — really, really hate Trump. IIRC, Cruz totally crushed him there in the primary. Utah’s not big prize in the electoral college, but the idea that Clinton could flip it can’t be good news for Trump. Lots of Mormons in Nevada, too.
Arclite
Wow. Might it be possible for Hillary to sweep the electoral college?
jonas
@Gimlet: Quit giving him ideas!
Ella in New Mexico
THIS kind of thing, plus all the citizens who are financially able moving away from these states will be what brings them down. When no one who lives there makes enough money to pay taxes, and no business want to expand there, these places and their corrupt governments will fall to pieces. Sad for the folks left behind, but in the long run, probably the quickest, most effective way to throw ideologues like Brownback to the curb and out of power for a few generations.
Cacti
@jonas:
Big Mormon population in AZ and ID also.
Dadadadadadada
@Cacti: I’d rather they voted for Clinton, though. If she wins a landslide with 20% of the voters staying home, we’ll have even more of that “illegitimate president” nonsense.
We’ll have that nonsense regardless, but if that 20% votes for Clinton, the nuts will have to work much harder to justify it.
rikyrah
@TooManyJens:
Yeah, this has been tough. Gotta get rid of him.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Cacti:
It does matter for downticket races.
Gelfling545
@Mnemosyne: True. I just don’t believe too many people can be actually undecided given what the choice is.
PaulW
This is a BUSINESSMAN telling the so called pro-business Republican party how fucked up they are
PaulW
@Arclite:
Not really, states like Alabama Kentucky southcarolina and Wyoming will stay Red.
? Martin
@Ella in New Mexico: Worse, the driver for economic growth is currently education, not natural resources or taxes. And education is the thing Kansas is hitting the hardest. There’s no point moving to Kansas, they don’t have a competitive workforce and aren’t on a trajectory to.
Mnemosyne
@Gelfling545:
I think the indecision for a lot of them is whether they can bring themselves to vote for Trump. Out-and-proud white supremacism is not nearly as popular among whites as Trump seems to think. The ghost of Lee Atwater is screaming from his place in Hell, We were using coded language for a REASON, you idiot!
Ella in New Mexico
@? Martin: Exactly. Which, I am sad to say, has hit my state pretty hard in terms of economic development, albeit we are not as F’d as Kansas’ schools are.
maya
That’s “Bushwacker” Brownback, to you, Kansas. A near decedent of Billy Quantrell no doubt.
rikyrah
Mark KnollerVerified account
@markknoller
Mrs Obama and daughters to visit Liberia, Morocco and Spain June 27-July 1 for “Let Girls Learn” program.
Miss Bianca
@? Martin:
Martin, are you saying here that education spending is what’s driving state economies? Or that the presence of an educated workforce is what is driving economic growth? Or both?
singfoom
Ah my home state, always a basket case. I’m gladdened to see this missive by Pathfinder’s CEO. It will take many many many companies moving away to do nothing in the mind of the Kansas conservatives, because they’ll keep doubling down until they’ve dug their own graves. By the way, fuck you to all the people shitting on the people of Kansas. Your brush is too broad:
http://www.politico.com/2014-election/results/map/governor/kansas/
50.1% vs 46.1% guys. Over 400 hundred thousand people voted for not Brownback, so let’s not put them in the same basket as the assholes who voted for Brownback.
singfoom
FYWP, ate my first comment, let’s try again
Ah my home state, always a basket case. I’m gladdened to see this missive by Pathfinder’s CEO. It will take many many many companies moving away to do nothing in the mind of the Kansas conservatives, because they’ll keep doubling down until they’ve dug their own graves. By the way, fuck you to all the people shitting on the people of Kansas. Your brush is too broad:
2014 KS Governor election results
50.1% vs 46.1% guys. Over 400 hundred thousand people voted for not Brownback, so let’s not put them in the same basket as the assholes who voted for Brownback.
James E Powell
Thomas Frank was right! Or at least close enough for rock & roll.
gwangung
@Miss Bianca: education creates knowledge, which businesses exploit to create profit, and they tap the educated workforce of the area to fill the primary and secondary jobs. Businesses in Silicon Valley basically use universities as cheap basic research departments and skim off the closest to market bits if knowledge
Davebo
@C. Isaac:
When the time comes to actually vote at least 10% of those saying Libertarian will vote for the Republican just like they do every 4 years.
Turgidson
@Mary G:
The wingnuts will come home, at least enough to deliver to Trump. Brownback was behind in all the 2014 polls and had already proven himself to be a historically bad governor, but he won with room to spare.
? Martin
@Miss Bianca:
The presence of an educated workforce. The most direct way to achieve that is through education spending, but also by creating economies that capture educated workers (it becomes a virtuous cycle at some point). High achieving students in Kansas increasingly don’t go to college in Kansas – they head off to other states where they graduate and most often stay. In that respect Kansas is most likely a net exporter of educated workers – and that’s economically deadly.
I almost suspect in some of these cases that the GOP has determined that their electoral future is with low-education voters and undermine their own citizenry and economy to ensure that education opportunities are scarce. Highly educated workers are more likely to vote for education spending (which requires taxes), to vote for civil rights, and therefore to vote for Democrats.
? Martin
@gwangung:
That’s part of it. But Silicon Valley also benefits from having a geographically dense labor market. Workers can move jobs without having to uproot their families, which allows tech firms to chase talent a lot more fluidly than other industries (I suspect Detroit used to have this same dynamic). Silicon Valley is far and away the most expensive place in the country to live and run a business, yet companies deliberately move there because the access to highly educated workers far outstrips any possible tax benefits that other cities can offer. And that density allows for new businesses to spin up more rapidly as individuals with personal affiliations can bring ideas together and then pursue them. So many startups in that market are individuals that worked together in the past or through loose personal affiliations that come up with an idea and launch it. That sort of thing is hard to do when you are trying to chase talent from half a dozen different states. There’s a lot less of the university as incubator going on these days because there’s so much more money and opportunity outside of the universities, but they are still valuable for dumping new, well trained talent into the market. That’s the virtuous cycle being created. Taxes and regulation basically have fuckall to do with it.
Thats the kind of virtuous
Cacti
@Turgidson:
In States like Kansas, probably true.
But I think Trump has a lower floor nationally than a mainstream Repub would have. He’s significantly less popular than any of his recent predecessors with women voters and Hispanic voters. His negative rating with all women voters is a jaw dropping 70%, and that could be a real problem for him in states that are red but not deep red (less than a double digit PVI).
Nelle
And Thomas Frank is speaking in town (Lawrence, KS) tonight, to castigate liberals for not supporting Bernie, as I understand it. He has a new book on liberals to flog. I’m not bothering.
I’m friends with the man who was budget director for the last three governors before Brownback. He used to tear his hair out in disbelief, but now he just travels a lot and writes trenchant commentary. I wish he would run for governor but I think he sees it as a fool’s errand – whoever comes next will have such a pile to shovel, I’m not sure it is even possible.
We are the rare people who moved here, despite the knowledge of what is going on. We do live in the People’s
Republic of Lawrence, so it doesn’t feel like Kansas in many ways. But we aren’t committed to staying here. And when Missouri looks good to a Kansan (we still remember Quantrill’s raid in 1863 where between 150 and 200 men and boys were massacred. Look it up on Wiki – Kansas and Missouri have kept up the antagonism for a long, long time), you know things are rotten.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: Twas ever thus. Even at the university, during the tightest budget times… there’s not enough money for this, there’s not enough money for that. But if the Dean wanted something, there was always money for that!
redshirt
@PaulW: Many business leaders are far more pragmatic than Republicans. I forget where I read it but in a survey an overwhelming number of CEO’s favored universal healthcare.
Not that that will change the Republican’s stance one bit.
When the Republican party threatens to ruin the US economy, shouldn’t Wall St., the Chamber, and other business groups be concerned? Or does ideology now trump all?
DemJayhawks
@Nelle: Hello fellow Kansan. Stay strong.
Numbers that I think mean something:
2010 gubernatorial election
Brownback (R): 63% (531k)
Holland (D): 32% (270k)
Libertarian: 3% (22k)
Reform: 2% (15k)
2014 gubernatorial election
Brownback (R): 50% (433k)
Davis (D): 46% (401k)
Libertarian: 4% (35k)
Are “moderate” Kansas Republicans learning?
Nelle
@DemJayhawks: Where are you? Still in the state?
DemJayhawks
@Nelle: About 30 minutes east of you. Didn’t have the good sense to move away after school.
TriassicSands
Until Donnie Trump came along there was intense competition for who the worst Republican was. In truth, there are so many Republicans who are so bad in so many different ways that it made sense to divide them up into categories — 1) Most racist; 2) Most zealous religious fanatic; 3) Most devout Lafferite; and so on. However, one name would show up high on the list of most, if not all, categories. Sam Brownback.
In a majoritarian sense the people of Kansas are getting exactly what they deserve — they’ve elected this idiot and re-elected him. But even if the percentages are relatively small, the numbers of people who don’t deserve what they’re getting are not insignificant. I don’t know if I could stomach reading the newspaper coverage of the Brownback regime, since the newspapers are probably, for the most part, horrible right wing rags. If ever there was an abject political failure that ought to turn an entire state 180 degrees politically, it ought to be Brownback. But twenty-first century Republicans are so stupid and so awash in mindless religion and voodoo economics that I wouldn’t put much hope in a political revolution in Kansas.
What’s the matter with Kansas. On the one hand, Sam Brownback. But on the other, more important hand, the people who elected him. Many of them will probably vote — enthusiastically — for Trump.
TriassicSands
@DemJayhawks:
What, if I may ask, was it that kept you there? Kansas’ problems politically are not new. I’ve been very fortunate in living in states that have a bit more going for them (Washington currently). I have driven across Kansas many times, but never saw anything that made me want to stay. In your case, was it deep family ties, or something else? I’m curious. I know a lot of people don’t move because they can’t afford to, but your statement makes it sound more like you stayed out of habit. Care to share? I’d appreciate it.
Nelle
When the Red-wing blackbird trills from the cattails and the meadowlark sings from the tall grasses, when the sunrise arches over an immense sky before the heat sets in, I’m in the land that first imprinted it’s landscape upon me. There is more to it than politics.
Snarki, child of Loki
(from upthread)
States can’t declare bankruptcy, they’ve always been in the same boat as Puerto Rico is now. There’s no provision for a US state to declare bankruptcy in the (Federal) bankruptcy code. So KS is definitely exploring new and exciting territory.
Perhaps the creditors will have to seize the state capitol building to pay the debt, but before they do anything with it, they’ll have to fumigate to get rid of the vermin.
TriassicSands
@Snarki, child of Loki:
Kansas needs to consult with the bankruptcy expert D. Trump. Perhaps he can figure out a way for the state to behave in a thoroughly reckless manner and still manage to stiff its creditors in the end. After all, that seems to have worked well for Presumptive Grifter-in-Chief Trump. Why not for a state run by a fanatic with more than a tinge of sociopathy about him?
DemJayhawks
@TriassicSands: Family, friends, professional opportunity in my wife’s case. Up until recently, the state’s democrats and moderate republicans had a ruling coalition. The moderate republicans were primaried out of existence, so we now have what you see and read about.
Someone asked about our newspapers. The Topeka Capital Journal, the Lawrence Journal-World, the Kansas City Star, and the Wichita Eagle are the major papers. The first three seem to be on the up-and-up regarding their statehouse reporting. I can’t speak for the Eagle, though.
TriassicSands
@DemJayhawks:
Good luck to you. I hope you live to see the day when Brownback is but a bad joke barely visible in the rear view mirror. I know there are lots of things that keep people in one state or bring them to another and it’s rarely feasible to make state politics a deciding factor. Still, I always feel for people, good people who care about their fellow citizens, who are stuck for whatever reason in a state dominated by radical Republicans. My own sister moved to Wisconsin when it was still a reliably blue state and has remained to see it turn into a monster that has twice elected Scott Walker and replaced Russ Feingold with Ron Johnson (soon to be rectified, I hope). And they may not be the end of her political woes. Her representative, Reed Ribble, is no winner. The best that can be said for him is that he has announced his retirement at the end of his current term. (Amazingly, Ribble was an early critic of Trump. My guess is that his problem with Trump is that he’s not a radical conservative wingnut — hes’ just a mindless, loudmouthed, narcissistic, racist, xenophobic buffoon. I can’t think of any politicians who would be easier to oppose than Trump. He provides a reason every time he opens his mouth. I expect him to commit multiple impeachable offenses soon after taking office in the event he is elected in November. The question will be do the House Republicans have the integrity [deafening laughter] to impeach him and would the Senate Republicans join Democrats in convicting him? The other question is who his VP is.)
Miss Bianca
@? Martin: Martin, I’m terribly late back to this thread but thank you for the detailed and thoughtful reply. This is as good an argument as I’ve ever seen for education spending – it might even convince a few of the “I respect education – but I don’t like it very much” crowd.
Miss Bianca
@redshirt:
This is a question that has driven me crazy for lo these many years.
Miss Bianca
@Nelle:
Well, I’d call *that* comment is the best opening line to a novel I’ve ever read on BJ. Gets it across to me, anyway.
Place draws me powerfully. I live in Colorado but find that my ideal landscape – the one where I feel most comfortable physically – looks more like Michigan, where I grew up, or the coast of Maine, where I spent a huge amount of time as a kid. Sometimes I wonder whether, politics or no, I would ever move back East.
Jeri Stephens
While I feel sorry for the citizens of Kansas, I have to ask. Did you people not know what you were getting. Did his campaign not give you a clue to what he was going to do? Run to the polls as soon as you have the opportunity to vote blue. You can make a difference. Good luck to you all.