Kansas to hike taxes to save school funds
TOPEKA, Kan. — Come July, shoppers in Kansas will be handing over more money on every purchase because of a sales tax increase at odds with the state’s image as a conservative stronghold.
Even as Republicans from Kansas talk up lower taxes and smaller government in Congress, the GOP-led state Legislature approved the jump in sales tax from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent that critics say makes Kansas more like California than its Midwestern neighbors.
Across the country, much of the talk has been about budget cuts as states try to wrestle their spending down to balance out lower revenues. After severe reductions last year, Kansas lawmakers were hearing concern from many voters about preserving schools.
"No one likes the thought of paying more taxes, but with the current economic situation, some type of tax increase seems inevitable,” said grocer Mark Fillmore, whose family has owned the M&M Market in Belle Plaine for generations.
That concern for schools didn’t translate into tax increases in most places. In Kansas, though, the new revenues are expected to prevent a cut in education funding in the $13.7 billion budget.
Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson expects to sign the measure, marking Kansas’ first general tax increase since 2002, by the end of the month.
Some activists and legislators were shaking their heads at a tax increase in a Republican-leaning state with a vocal tea party movement, and that the GOP-dominated Legislature refused in an election year to block an outgoing
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