Kansas Gov. Race, Some endorsement. Gov. Graves fulfills duty to the Grand Old PartySome

Question: When is an endorsement not an endorsement? Answer: When it's Gov. Bill Graves' endorsement of Tim Shallenburger.

Shallenburger, a conservative, won the GOP gubernatorial nomination Aug. 6. Graves made Shallenburger wait until Thursday before endorsing his own party's candidate for governor.

Some endorsement. Graves could barely bring himself to call Shallenburger, the state treasurer, by name.

"The treasurer and I could find several things we probably are not going to agree on," Graves said. "This endorsement is about those things that we do know we do agree upon, and principal among those is our commitment to the Republican Party."

Graves, a moderate, resisted efforts to further restrict the state's abortion laws. As a leader in the House, Shallenburger repeatedly voted for new restrictions.

Shallenburger supported a bill allowing Kansans to carry concealed weapons. Graves vetoed it.

Social issues don't matter as much as the budget, Graves said last week, contending that the November election is about fiscal management.

If so, then Graves' moderate legacy doesn't matter. The fight to keep more guns off the street, the battle to prevent additional restrictions on Kansas abortion laws, none of it.

The only thing that matters is fiscal policy, yet on that, too, Graves and Shallenburger disagree.

Graves, faced by a budget crisis this spring, signed a $252 million tax package to enhance state revenues. As the governor pointed out in a July opinion piece, without the new revenue, the state would've been forced to cut money for schools, elderly assistance and social services - and because revenue continued to decline, that turned out to be the case anyway. At least the tax increases hold the damage to a minimum.

Shallenburger promises that he will not raise taxes. He says that the state's budget crisis can be addressed by eliminating wasteful spending. All we need to do is stop the uncontrolled growth in state government.

In July, Graves urged voters not to be fooled by claims about "fat in government" as an excuse for not supporting tax increases.

Graves did his bit as a good Republican. He endorsed the party's nominee for governor. But in the end, the endorsement counts for little.

Hutch News, Sept. 24, 2002
Sebelius' TV ads mislead public
Kansans have had a steady diet of the isn't-she-sweet? commercials on television from Kathleen Sebelius, Democratic candidate for governor. I find it curious that not once in her commercials or in her literature does she mention that she's a Democrat.

But when this liberal Democrat stated on her television ad that, as insurance commissioner, she had cut her department by 19 percent (which is, of course, contrary to what liberal Democrats do), I had to find out for myself if this was true. So I contacted some people in Topeka, and this is what I found out.

Although Kathleen Sebelius claims she's reduced her department budget by 19 percent, the budget that she actually controls has increased nearly 40 percent. So I wondered, how can she claim a reduction of 19 percent? It's simple: the Workers Compensation Fund (WCF) - a major state program in the Insurance Department - was abolished by the Legislature! She is trying to take credit for something the Legislature did!

It gets even better. The aggregate eight-year increase of almost 40 percent represents an average annual compounded increase of 4.19 percent, more than twice the rate of inflation during the same period. In Fiscal Year 1995, the budget was $11,484,461 (All Funds spending, excluding WCF claims) and in Fiscal Year 2003, it's at $15,957,593 (All Funds spending, excluding WCF claims). That's an increase of almost 40 percent!

So now, every time you see that television ad, just remember that Sebelius is not representing the facts. I guess she didn't expect anyone to research her ad, did she? Or if she did, she was hoping more people would watch television than read a little letter to the editor.

TAMARA COOPER

Hutchinson

Here is what the CATO Institute had to say about our Governor in its report grading all governors.

Kansas

Bill Graves, Republican Legislature: Republican

Took Office: 1/95

Grade: D

As often happens in one-party states, infighting persists inside the Republican party in Kansas between moderates and con-servatives. For the past four years, Bill Graves has been the field general of the moderate faction, and this year worked to defeat anti-tax Republicans in the legislature. He has urged Republicans not to take "no tax" pledges. He has also given only tepid support for conservative Republican Tim Schallenberger, who hopes to succeed the retiring Graves next year. Graves was first elected in the landslide GOP year of 1994, and his first-term performance on economic issues was solid. In 1998, Graves signed a $250 million tax cut, slicing the inheritance tax, the property tax, the sales tax, and severance taxes. He endorsed a four-year phase-out of the state car tax. In each year of his first term he cut taxes, although not by as much as conservatives sought. His first-term budgets, on average, held spending to a reasonable growth rate. But his second term has been a fiscal calamity. He proposed the most expensive public works and infrastructure program in the history of the state—an eight-year, $10.7 billion highway construction program that raised spending by more than 50 per-cent. To pay for it, he hiked the gas tax 4 cents per gallon. He eagerly spent tobacco lawsuit settlement money on expanded children’s programs. He has beefed up school funding but opposed real reforms. He has pumped millions of dollars into the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corp., an unproductive state agency that doles out corporate welfare. Worst of all has been his about-face on taxes. He declared in his 1999 State of the State address: "Many have speculated, with election to my final term as governor, that my commitment to the people of this state to reduce their tax burden will wane. It will not; it cannot; it must not." But it did. Last year he enacted a giant $225 million tax hike—one of the largest in the nation when measured as a share of the state economy. He raised every tax he could, including the sale tax, cigarette taxes, motor fuel excises, and fees. As Karl Peterjohn of the Kansas Taxpayers’ Association noted, "Bill Graves turned out to be one of the most pro-tax governors that Kansas has ever had."

Fiscal Performance Data

1.9% Average Annual Change in Real per Capita Direct General Spending through 2000

0.7% Average Annual Change in Direct General Spending per $1,000 Personal Income through 2000

-0.4% Average Annual Recommended Change in Real per Capita General Fund Spending through 2003

-3.0% Average Annual Change in General Fund Spending per $1,000 Personal Income 2000–2002

1.01% Average Annual Change in Real per Capita Tax Revenue through 2000

-0.1% Average Annual Change in Tax Revenue per $1,000 Personal Income through 2000

-0.52% Average Annual Recommended Tax Changes as % of Prior Year’s Spending through 2003

0.7% Average Annual Recommended Change in General Fund Revenue per $1,000 Personal Income through 2003

4.1% Average Annual Change in Real per Capita General Fund Revenue 2000–2002

0.0 Change in Top Personal Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)

0 Change in Top Corporate Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)

13.8 2002 Combined Top Income Tax Rates, personal plus corporate (*0.5)

0.25 Change in Sales Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)

1.0 Change in Gas Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (cents per gallon)

65 Change in Cigarette Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (cents per pack)

0 Internet Tax (1=oppose; 0=support)

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