KANSAS "REVERSE ROBIN HOOD REPUBLICANS" HELL BENT ON SHRINKING KANSAS EDUCATION FUNDS

The Petroleum Industry enjoys records profits and each and every Kansas School District is scrimping to find enough money to educate the children of Kansas.  So here comes the Kansas House Committee on Taxation riding to the rescue of Kansas' kids, right? Wrong!  The Committee on Taxation comes thundering in like a band of marauders with their proposal, House Bill No. 2264.  This bill wants to eliminate the property tax on the market value of the mineral rights in Kansas.  That is not property tax on the oil rights, the natural gas rights, the fracing rights, even the tax paid by salt mines. 

In another of example of Republican Tax Cut Madness, the Committee on Taxation proposes reducing revenues in the face of burgeoning expenses.  Educating Kansas' kids is not a frivolous expense, rather it is a necessary obligation and the duty of the state.  H.B. 2264 is a bad bill. There is a hearing today at 3:30 p.m. in the Capitol at Room Docking 783.

OPPOSE H.B. 2264.

The Fiscal Note to H.B. 2264 says:

Passage of HB 2264 would decrease property tax revenues by providing a new property tax exemption. The state funds directly affected by this bill are the two building funds, the Educational Building Fund (EBF) and the State Institutions Building Fund (SIBF). The Department of Revenue estimates this bill would decrease revenues to these two funds by $14,722 in FY 2012, with $9,815 attributable to the EBF and $4,907 attributable to the SIBF. The bill would also have an effect on state expenditures for aid to school districts. To the extent that school districts would receive less property tax revenue through the state’s uniform mill levy, the state provides more state aid through the school finance formula. The Department of Revenue estimates the increased state expenditures for aid to schools to be $196,300 in FY 2012. The bill would also decrease revenues to any local government that levies a property tax in a jurisdiction where minerals are severed. Any fiscal effect associated with HB 2264 is not reflected in The FY 2012 Governor’s Budget Report. (Emphasis added).