Here's What's The Matter With Kansas, Cont.

The increasingly Galtian Republican "paradise" of Kansas, under the "leadership" of recently re-elected (WTF is wrong with you people?!) pea-brain ideologue Gov. Sam "Brownshirt" Brownback, has already made a reputation for itself as a nasty place to live for a low-income person. But, if you're wealthy, Republicans will always be looking out for you:

Wealthier Kansans are paying much less in taxes after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback overhauled the state's income tax a few years ago. Brownback and other Republican officials hoped that more generous policies would stimulate the economy, bringing more revenue into the state's coffers and making up the difference on the bottom line.

It didn't work. Kansas's economy has kept expanding at more or less same plodding pace as the rest of the country. And now, according to official estimates released Monday, the state will have at least a $143 million budget shortfall in 2016, and likely more. Lawmakers are looking for a way to plug the hole.

You think the Republicans would think about maybe rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthy to "plug the hole" they blew in the State's budget?  Dream on:

[I]n a legislature that last week barred welfare recipients from using their benefits to go swimming or watch movies, the proposals that look most likely to succeed are sales and excise taxes that would be paid disproportionately by Kansas's poor and working class.  [our emphasis]

Any other ideas for how to "plug the hole," Republicans, while simultaneously sticking it to another  "Democratic constituency?"

Six school districts in Kansas will close early this year, following budget cuts signed in March by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Two school districts, Concordia Unified School District and Twin Valley Unified School District, announced earlier this month that they would end the year early because they lacked the funds to keep the schools open. This week, four more districts confirmed they would also shorten their calendars, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

This Republican agenda of starving education and shredding the social safety net while using "trickle down" voodoo economics as a fig leaf to further enrich the rich is in their DNA.  You can see it in Wisconsin, where Koch-endorsed employee Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker is slashing education funding while cutting taxes (and skipping debt payments) and giving $200 million in tax breaks to a multi-millionaire sport franchise owner for a new stadium. You can see it pretty much everywhere where Republicans control state government.  And you'll see it if they ever control the Federal government.

(Photo:  Gov. Brownshirt - "Eh!  Who needs education!?  Not the Republican base!")