Tax Cuts Prove Costly for Other States
February 13th, 2015
Throughout the country lawmakers are looking for easy answers to spur economic growth in their states often touting large tax cuts that mainly benefit corporations and wealthy residents. Tax cuts sound good, but don’t work because they harm the very things states need to prosper: an educated workforce, modern infrastructure, and healthy and safe communities.
States like Kansas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina have recently passed sweeping tax cut measures, but their results are ranging from disappointing to devastating. Many of these states now have budget problems akin to those that occurred during the recession.
The biggest of these tax cuts have happened in Kansas, and they are now feeling the consequences. The Kansas cuts have been even more costly than expected, eating up the state’s reserve funds and causing credit rating downgrades, without producing any of the promised quick economic gains – in fact, since the cuts went into effect, Kansas has added jobs at a slower rate than the rest of the country. Making matters worse, it has led to huge funding cuts to public schools and universities with more cuts for the current year just announced.
The Kansas Center for Economic Growth has illustrated much of the harm of these cuts in the infographic above.
Will Mississippi buy in to this failed approach when we need investments that will support better schools, a college-educated workforce and healthier communities? Mississippi has consistently underinvested in these building blocks of our economy making cuts in these areas especially harmful.
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