Kansas may furlough 7,000 workers due to revenue shortage

[Zorro]

Source: Reuters

More than 7,000 state employees in Kansas would be furloughed on Monday if state lawmakers cannot agree on a new annual budget by midnight on Saturday, state officials said on Friday.

The Kansas House and Senate are trying to make up an estimated $400 million revenue shortfall in the wake of tax cuts engineered by Republican Governor Sam Brownback in recent years.

The state notified 7,109 non-essential executive branch employees they would be subject to unpaid furlough on Monday, said John Milburn, legislative and public affairs director for the state Department of Administration.

The workers are among 17,556 employees who work in departments under Brownback, Milburn said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/kansas-may-furlough-7-000-workers-due-revenue-234220414--business.html

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The Kansas economic renaissance continues!

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

1. Cancel the furlough, bill the payroll to the Koch Brothers

who happens to be Kansas residents...

[Warpy]

2. Koch boys got him elected so their taxes would go down

Brownback delivered. Now it looks like 7,000 more people aren't going to be able to pay their mortgages or feed their kids.

Way to go, you smarmy, corrupt bastard.

[olegramps]

32. The article that I read indicated over 24,000 could be affected

[byronius]

3. That is incredibly dark.

Ruined lives, ruined childhoods, ruined futures. Misery. Despair.

The wealthy must have everything. Every last thing. Or else it's just no good for them.

[Drahthaardogs]

14. They voted him in AGAIN!

I know I am being cruel, but people of Kansas keep voting for this shit no matter what the consequences. They just do not learn.

[TerrapinFlyer]

21. I agree. The best way for voters is tolearn from their mistakes.

Kansas is the GOP.

Kansas is what you get when you vote GOP.

[olegramps]

33. I couldn't believe it when he was voted back into office.

Unless it can be proven that there was massive fraud in the voting, you just have to accept that people are so ignorant of what is happening that they would reelect this nutcase.

[kimbutgar]

4. This has got to happen in Kansas

Let the people of Kansas really live with the loss of basic infrastructure in government.. No roads repaired, no getting building permits, licenses etc. A total breakdown in government. Give them the fox induced total governmental breakdown.

Something tells me it won't go over well with the citizens.

You got to hit rock bottom sometimes to wake up.

[LovingA2andMI]

22. Time to Replace the Kansas Welcome Sign with this....

Welcome To Kansas:

[Thav]

27. There is still stuff in that dumpster

It needs to be empty.

[MissDeeds]

5. That number is way too low

It's roughly 24,000 according to the local evening news. KU and K-State alone would be furloughing roughly 16,000 not to mention state offices and K-DOT (KS Dept. of Transportation), among others.

There are going to be protests tomorrow, Saturday, at the State House. This is a mess of massive proportions and there are calls to have Brownback removed from office. Reading the editorial page and letters to the editor in the Kansas City Star is quite a treat these days.

BTW - A statistics professor from Wichita State is looking into the last election. The results don't match the polling and the widespread dissatisfaction of incumbents. Curious indeed.

[grandpamike1]

11. Unfortunately

Protests do not work, they could care less if you protest forever. Suffer the pain, and maybe you will vote differently in the future.

[MissDeeds]

12. Your post is offensive

"Maybe you will vote differently in the future." I did vote differently, a straight Democratic ticket. You might want to check your insults next time. They are uncalled for.

[BlueJazz]

15. If it's like the crap (here in Florida) Kansas citizens may very well have voted differently than..

...what the results turned out to be.

[hollysmom]

16. what exactly does the professor speculate?

[MissDeeds]

18. She is looking into the possibility of vote flipping

and has filed papers to get paper tapes from electronic voting machines. The largest cities in the state typically vote Democratic, but in recent elections they voted more Republican than the smaller districts. The voting shows statistically significant patterns where the percent of the Republican votes increase the larger the size of the precinct.

I can honesty say people were stunned after the last election. No one could believe the Republican sweep. I am so glad it's being looked into.

[hollysmom]

20. yeah, I suspect a lot of that, I am not thrilled with the idea of internet voting either.

[LovingA2andMI]

23. Well....

This is not surprising. Especially considering What Happened in Kansas during the 2014 Election is likely the Koch's Brothering way of Flipping the White House in 2016. How many formerly BLUE States are now ran by Republican Governors or worst a Republican Sweep of the Executive and Legislative Branches?

Let's just count the Formerly Blue Midwest for example:
Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin....

All with either a Republican Governor or Worst a Republican Sweep. Me thinks the Professor might be onto something here. Let's hope it breaks wide open before Election 2016.

Independent Underground News & Talk

[-none]

28. It is not so odd Brownback was reelected.

Brownback's Secretary of State is also the head of the Republican party in Kansas and in charge of enforcing the voting laws in Kansas.
The candidate most people voted for, never had a chance, even with the law suits.

[MissDeeds]

31. That's exactly it

"The candidate most people voted for, never had a chance..." I'll never believe Brownback, Pat Roberts, and Kris Kobach all won fair and square. I'm interested to see what the investigation into vote flipping reveals, but the professor launching the investigation teaches at Wichita State, which is heavily controlled by the Koch brothers, so who knows how that will work out.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Great post. Thanks for the useful information. n/t

[MissDeeds]

19. Thank you!

[ananda]

30. Buyer's remorse

Too little too late.

Just like Wisconsin.


Most Texans are still too stupid and racist to feel remorse ... yet.

[heaven05]

6. well

he was voted into that office. A lot of innocents are reaping what the not so innocent have sown. Sad indeed.

[tabasco]

24. Many teabag-types are state employees who will lose their jobs

They will continue to blame it all on 'libruls.'

[heaven05]

38. Ignorance and racial hate knows no bounds

and I'm sure you are right.

[nightscanner59]

7. When will Dorothy drop a house on the antediluvians?

Maybe when they finally decide Fox Noise has them over a barrel?

[lordsummerisle]

8. Brownback was elected governor in 2010

and reelected in 2014. I normally hate cliches but you reap what you sow...

[The Wizard]

9. Repubic logic:

taking money out of circulation is sound economic policy. Now they'll beg for a federal bailout like the failed bankers did.

[grandpamike1]

10. Votes count

Do not feel one iota of sympathy for the folks in Kansas, maybe you should re-elect him again, and all of his Republican pals.

[jmowreader]

37. They fortunately CAN'T reelect him again

Kansas governors can only serve two consecutive terms. The big problem for Kansas is what happens after Brownback's term ends, and the pain the next governor will have to inflict to bail the state out. I foresee a New York City-style federal bailout, complete with city-level income taxes.

[Botany]

13. I will never believe that Brownback won a clean election

[leftyladyfrommo]

25. per KC Star this am it's 24,000 plus

Kansas is such a mess right now.

[Turbineguy]

26. "revenue"

I somehow read "revenge".

[QED]

29. And yet Brownback still wants to eliminate the income tax.

[lonestarnot]

34. Yet another pigliCON accomplishment.

[christx30]

35. They make no secret of their desire to shrink

the government. That involves reducing the size of the government workforce. Reduce the money the government needs by making budget cuts, take that surplus money and give it to people in the form of tax cuts. Lay off or furlough the people that do the jobs that were eliminated in the cuts.
Seems like this is pretty much in line with everything they vote for. Shrink the government. Lay off the people that work for the government.

[Gothmog]

36. Brownback just proved that the Laffer curve is a joke

[Zorro]

39. The Laffer curve is aptly named in more ways than one

GWB I nailed the description exactly as "voodoo economics", and was soundly defeated for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination by the Reaganites who embraced it.

It's faith-based economics at its worst.