The Tax Debate Is Over, And Progressives Won
"The Washington Post recently highlighted the economic divergence between California and Kansas. California is tied, with Oregon, for the fastest growth in the nation with 4.1 percent gross domestic product growth in 2015. Kansas was flat, at 0.2 percent, and the second half of the year recorded negative growth, placing the state in recession. Only West Virginia, Alaska and North Dakota performed worse. These diametrically opposite economic numbers came three years after each state took a different path on taxes: In 2012, voters in California approved a measure to raise taxes on millionaires, bringing their top state income tax rate to 13.3 percent, the highest in the nation … Also that year, the governor of Kansas signed a series of changes to the state’s tax code, including reducing income and sales tax rates. The Post noted that the Kansas tax cuts “were meant to spur entrepreneurship,” or to put it more bluntly, “[Gov. Sam] Brownback’s policies modestly increased taxes for the poor and working class, who pay more in sales taxes than income taxes, while reducing taxes drastically for the rich.” The economy of tax-raising California took off, while Kansas’s quintessentially right-wing tax cuts flopped."
