THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

A stern eyed, hollow souled man rode to victory in the gubernatorial election on a wave of bright shining "promises". As time went by these promises turned out to be no more than a pack of chimeras and lies. In Kansas now, Sam Brownback's "real, live experiment" carried out on the backs of lower and middle class Kansans has proved to be a dismal, costly failure.

Brownback told Kansans in 2012 that over five years the new tax policy would create more than 22,000 jobs beyond normal growth and attract more residents. The governor described the effort on MSNBC’s Morning Joe as a “real, live experiment”; given Brownback’s national ambitions, many wondered if his real goal was expanding his laboratory to include the other 49 states.

Then the results started coming in. Unemployment fell, along with the rest of the country’s, as the economy improved from the worst years of the recession — thanks in part to the federal stimulus. But contrary to Brownback’s promises, Kansas job growth has lagged all its neighboring states’ except Nebraska’s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Its population has grown at half the national rate.

Rather, the most immediate effect of the tax cuts has been the more predictable one: less money for state services. Kansas collected $310 million less in revenue than planned during the April and May tax season. The state’s nonpartisan legislative research division estimated when the tax cuts were passed that the state would collect $4.5 billion less through 2018. To make up for some of the losses, the state government targeted the pocketbooks of low-income consumers, reducing a planned sales tax cut and eliminating tax rebates for items like food, child care, access for the disabled and alternative-fuel equipment.

It wasn’t enough for creditors. After the reported shortfalls came in, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s downgraded the state’s credit rating.

Brownback’s campaign defends the falling revenue. “That’s what happens when you cut taxes,” spokesman John Milburn said at one of the governor’s campaign stops in the capital, Topeka. “As long as you’re able to provide those services — which we are — that’s good governance.” The governor’s plan is still for the income tax rate to ultimately fall to zero, he said.

But many Kansans don’t feel that state services are up to par. By far, the most politically damaging problems for Brownback have been in education. Public schools, which educate 95 percent of Kansas schoolchildren, have seen their budgets shrink, contributing to school closings and stoking anger across the state. Earlier this year, the courts stepped in to order the legislature to provide the needed funds.

“Brownback’s cut us pretty hard on the financial and the educational funding, and what he’s done to the teachers is just disgusting,” said Clyde Taverner, a Davis supporter from Wichita whose wife is a retired high school language-arts teacher.

When he was elected, Brownback had a Republican legislature eager to do what he asked. And even now, Sam and his wealthy buddies are doing well and can't understand why people are complaining. The best hope for Kansas is for the people to realize that Sam Brownback and his Republican cronies are just a bunch of mean spirited lying douchebags who need to be thrown out.