Are Kansans having buyer’s remorse with Sam Brownback?

Predictably, the news is bad for Kansas in the latest jobs report.

Kansas lost 4,400 private jobs in November, while most states saw their job numbers increase.

It’s the latest bit of sour news on the Kansas economy, one in which lawmakers in January have to slice and dice the state budget in order to balance a projected $280 million shortfall. Gov. Sam Brownback has volunteered some ideas on areas of government to cut just to make it through this year, which includes raids on the state highway fund and the Kansas Endowment for Children.

These types of proposals to square the budget rely almost entirely on one-time fixes that don’t carry over to longer-term savings. In other words, while Brownback fundamentally changed the way Kansas government is funded with his overhaul of the income-tax code, he doesn’t appear to have a plan for how to fundamentally change how Kansas government operates.

Defenders of Brownback’s cuts like to say state government, like Kansas families, needs to learn how to live within its means. OK, then to take the analogy further, Brownback’s elimination of state income taxes for nearly 200,000 businesses is roughly similar to a breadwinner in a household taking a pay cut or a spouse losing a job, resulting in expenses outpacing the newly decreased income. Those families have to adjust to a new lifestyle until they can make that income back. They may have to dispense with their cable service. They have to unplug and drain the hot tub. They may have to eat more canned soup than eat out at the Bristol. They may have to sell a car and run as a one-car family for a while.

Kansas government is doing the equivalent of not paying the electric bill and hoping that the utility doesn’t notice, rather than finding ways to use less electricity over the long term, or making minimum payments on a credit-card bill when those $10 payments can’t offset the interest that’s making the balance grow over time.

The lack of a plan is the result of unrealized promises of Brownback’s tax plan. He thought it would result in a rapid influx of job growth in Kansas. That hasn’t happened. True, Kansas has more private-sector jobs today than it had a year ago. But the pace of that growth lags behind neighboring states.

Compare the percentage growth of private jobs in all of Kansas’ neighboring states from November 2013 to last month, Kansas trails the entire pack.

Kansas 0.6 percent
Colorado 2.4 percent
Missouri 1.6 percent
Oklahoma 2.5 percent
Nebraska 0.7 percent