Why the Brownback tax cuts are an election issue in Topeka races for Kansas Senate

Seven years after its repeal, the tax experiment of former Gov. Sam Brownback remains a hot-button issue in Kansas politics.

The Brownback tax cuts have become an issue in two local Topeka races for seats in the Kansas Legislature .

In one, a Republican is attacking another Republican over voting to repeal the Brownback tax cuts. In another, a Democrat is attacking a fellow Democrat for voting in favor of a tax cut plan that was likened to Brownback's.

Are the tactics still effective more than six years after Brownback resigned his office? The answers may come Tuesday during the primary election.

Republican takes issue with repealing Brownback tax cuts

In the Senate District 20 GOP primary, Josh Powell is challenging incumbent Sen. Brenda Dietrich, R-Topeka.

In a July 2 social media post and in The Topeka Capital-Journal's candidate questionnaire , Powell criticized Dietrich for voting for "the largest tax increase in Kansas history," which he said "slowed economic growth and hurt families."

Dietrich did indeed vote for the largest tax increase in Kansas history when she was in the House. It was 2017, Dietrich's first year as a legislator, and the state was facing a budget crisis. A coalition of Republicans and Democrats overrode Brownback's veto of Senate Bill 30 , largely repealing the tax cuts of 2012 and 2013.

"My opponent is doing what politicians and the national media does, misrepresents the truth at best and lies at worst," Dietrich said. "I voted to overturn the Brownback tax cuts, because that is what the voters of this district asked me to do."

Powell said that vote "was absolutely the wrong direction" and was critical of the government "spending spree" since then.

"The bill my opponent voted for retroactively raised taxes on all Kansas residents," he said. "It raised taxes on those making less than $30,000. It raised taxes on small businesses. It raised taxes on low, and middle income families."

Kansas governor suggests failed tax package was akin to Brownback's

After suggesting that various Republican tax proposals were akin to going back to Brownback, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is now using that line of attack against a fellow Democrat.

In the Democratic primary for Senate District 19, Kelly's political action committee is attacking House Minority Leader Vic Miller, D-Topeka, while supporting Patrick Schmidt.

"Remember Sam Brownback's tax experiment?" says the narrator in a video from Kelly's Middle of the Road PAC . "School closures and four-day school weeks. Roads that were falling apart. A state budget that became a disaster.

"Well Vic Miller must've forgotten all of that, because Miller voted to bring back the Brownback tax scheme with huge tax cuts for millionaires and big corporations, forcing families and local schools to pay the price."

When Miller first saw the attack ad, "I laughed out loud, it is so ridiculous," he said.

"They are insulting the intelligence of my constituents to think that my constituents could possibly believe that I am akin to Sam Brownback and his policies," Miller said. "One of the principal reasons I ran in 2016 was to correct the mess Sam Brownback had created, and I did just that. I was a principal in overriding Brownback, so it is absolutely laughable to equate me to him."

The ad cites Miller's March 29, 2023, vote on Senate Bill 169 . Miller and nine other House Democrats voted for a version of SB 169 that day, which was a bundle of tax bills that included a controversial flat income tax, among other more popular provisions.

Miller said bills "are deliberately bundled so they can pass measures that are unpopular; so that they can get legislators, mostly Democrats, in a catch-22 situation." Vote against the bill and you are criticized for opposing the popular provisions; vote for the bill and you are criticized for supporting the unpopular provisions.

More: Democrats ShaMecha King Simms, Vic Miller and Patrick Schmidt run for Senate District 19

Fellow House Democrats defend their votes

Three House Democrats who voted the same way as Miller defended their March 29, 2023, votes in favor of SB 169 before later opposing a different version.

"That's a very false characterization of that vote," said Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita. "This isn't anything like going back to Brownback."

"The governor," said Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, "is really not being straightforward in that ad because Rep. Miller along with myself both voted 'no' on the final bill that actually passed both houses of the Legislature."

"It was a catch-22 to me because it was exactly what my constituent base wanted," said Rep. John Alcala, D-Topeka, who is a member of the tax committee. "It was the elimination of the food sales tax. It was the elimination of the Social Security tax and it was a reduction in property tax. So with what I knew — if there was something else stirring in the background with the administration, I knew nothing about it — but what I did know was my constituent base wanted those items."

Sawyer, a former House minority leader who is now the ranking Democrat on the tax committee, said legislators worked in "a very bipartisan manner" when crafting that version of SB 169.

He pointed to fiscal note , which estimated the cost at $436 million a year by 2026.

"It was not blowing a hole in the budget," he said.

He contrasted it with the version of House Bill 2036 that Kelly supported , which would've cost $428 million in 2026 and $436 million annually by 2029.

"I don't know how they could say that's taking us back to Brownback when it's basically the same amount of money she said she was willing to support this year," Sawyer said.

Political discourse keeps going back to Brownback

While it has been seven years since the Brownback tax cuts were repealed, the former governor's high unpopularity and the impact on public school funding mean the tax cuts could continue to be a political issue, said Michael Smith, an Emporia State University political science professor.

"I think it's faded, but I think that they can still squeeze some more mileage out of it," he said.

As for whether it is an effective attack, Smith said, "We really just have to wait for the election to see what the voters think."

Brownback declined to comment for this story.

The back to Brownback attack has long been used by Democrats, including by Kelly in her 2022 reelection campaign .

"She's been successful in the past of pitting herself against the Brownback policies that somehow she thinks that in and of itself used against me will work," Miller said. "It won't because it's not true."

Rep. Nick Hoheisel, R-Wichita, said he doesn't think that version of SB 169 was going back to Brownback.

"That equation is silly," said Hoheisel, who voted for the bill. "That's always the line of attack that Democrats are going to bring out to any tax cut. ... Every time we bring a tax bill up for tax relief, they bring out the Sam Brownback, back to Brownback line. I mean, it's been beat to death."

Hoheisel said he thinks it is time for Democrats to retire that attack.

"People are starting to see through it," he said. "I think as we've gone on it's become less and less effective, especially when they see the other side of the coin, which is with a Democratic president and what inflation is doing to families. You look at grocery prices and stuff and how these policies are making it more difficult for people to feed their families, and they want some tax relief."

Smith said attacking someone for repealing the Brownback tax cuts — as Powell is with Dietrich — by calling it the largest tax increase in Kansas history is something he has seen before. One such time was the 2022 GOP primary for state treasurer . He said attacks over provisions of bundled bills — as Kelly is doing to Miller — are "an unfortunate part of politics."

"We're getting down to the wire here," Smith said. "We've really just got a few days, and early voting is open in some places. This is when the desperation tactics come out. And unfortunately, an age old desperation tactic that's used is to attack your opponent on a roll call vote they took in the Legislature completely out of context."

More: Kansas primary election advance voting starting. What to know in Shawnee County.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd .

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Why the Brownback tax cuts are an election issue in Topeka races for Kansas Senate