Stop Cutting And The Economy Will Grow
Last Friday, I noticed more semi-trucks loaded down with brand new cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks destined for dealerships and prospective buyers. I thought to myself, “Alright, things must be looking up in the economy,” but, then, a few hours later I read a February Kansas job-losses story in the Topeka Capital-Journal.
The highest losses came in jobs related to trade, transportation and utilities; professional and business services; and leisure and hospitality. I thought, “Well, what do you expect with all the cutting going on by the Kansas legislature? Or the threat of cuts statewide? Who would want to come here?”
And, then, the “No duh” moment hit me: Lower pay slows down spending, or stops it, all over the state! Add gasoline prices to reduced income and businesses are bound to let workers go or close altogether.
After reading the piece again, I skipped on down to the plentiful reader comments. One person wrote, “When you cut budgets around the state, it has a trickle-down effect. When you stop cutting is when things start to grow.”
Even more surprising was how government jobs had gone up in Kansas in the same period. Gone up? Isn’t the new administration out to gut government jobs and cut the salaries of workers already on the pay roll, instead of taxing those corporations that can afford to pay?
One respondent to the job loss story said, “I work for the state government, and we have been on a hard hiring freeze for almost three years now… And, yes, with the legislators wanting to dip their hand into my bank account by slashing my pay…you can bet that I am not spending money in the community or state…I am saving everything I can. Sorta a trickledown theory?”
Another respondent said the additional jobs had been on college and university campuses. “They are coming from private investment. Yet here is a cabinet secretary [Karin Brownlee] in charge of jobs telling Kansans that this is a bad thing. Is more private investment creating new jobs at our colleges and universities a bad thing? Only if you have an ideological bias,” said this other writer.
In a recent photograph from the Kansas Statehouse, a stack of bills—unrelated to jobs creation – towered over a very short pile reportedly aimed at creating jobs. Ideological bills, piled high, included one designed to demolish the State Board of Education and the Board of Regents and replace them with one person – a cabinet level Secretary of Education – appointed directly by the governor and easily construed as one-sided and very political in nature.
You’ll all be glad to know, silencers can now be used for hunting, fishing and fur harvesting. That one passed for sure, as did an abortion bill, and the 75-mph-speed limit bill still lives.
As I have continued to ask in my recent columns, “What about the jobs?” Governor Brownback, at least, has a plan with his economic summits in the areas of aviation, agritourism, animal agriculture and renewable energy. Each cabinet secretary and the stakeholders want to create a fund, which could grow, and would provide between $50 and $100 million over five years.
The governor hopes this money, also called “a deal closer,” can be used for moving and other business expenses with start-up costs. This would include tax deductions of 100 percent of the cost of capital improvements. Fine, but a five-year plan doesn’t translate into doing much for current needs.
Yet, ideological/cultural bills flew out of the starting gate; jobs creation bills received short shrift, and Labor Secretary Brownlee wonders why the continued job loss. Wisconsin lost a wind farm. The company, according to a CleanTechnica story, said, “…it was concerned about moving forward because of the state of flux in Wisconsin’s regulatory climate, when it comes to wind siting.” Plus, the state is in political flux and facing ongoing boycotts and turmoil.
Kansas isn’t Wisconsin, yet; renewable energy remains in the plan, but look at that bills tower I mentioned. Legislators haven’t been working on job initiatives. Not really! Show the rest of the country and the world, Kansas is open for business – not mimicking conservative legislators in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Florida, New Jersey with look-alike bills – and they just might come here.
At least Boeing came through, but what about the rest of our state’s job eager citizens? Shouldn’t the Kansas Legislature have gotten down to business in their behalf? And maybe, just maybe, in a few years, those vehicles on their way to dealerships will be affordable once they’re tagged used. Fingers crossed!
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Posted by admin
on Apr 6 2011. Filed under Kevin Gray, Opinion.
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