Kansas Republicans block paychecks, schools, Medicaid, and income tax refunds.

[mckitterick]

The LJ-World reports (and NPR confirms) that the state of Kansas has halted paying income-tax refunds, supporting schools, and might not pay its employees this Friday because Republicans enjoy frakking around with people. Oops. I mean, the state Republicans have blocked the normal loan process to coerce our Democratic governor to do their bidding:

Asked at a news conference if the state’s 42,000 state employees, including those at Kansas University, would be paid Friday, Sebelius’ budget director Duane Goossen said, “I don’t know.”

In addition to state employee paychecks, payments to schools, Medicaid, and income tax refunds are also in question.

The state’s general fund had $10.4 million in it Monday morning, Goossen said. The state’s payroll is $24 million, and state officials start processing those checks Wednesday for payment Friday. Last Friday, the state stopped paying income tax refunds because of the lack of cash.

The fireworks erupted after Sebelius requested a $225 million certificate of indebtedness to handle payments during the current low cash-flow period. Certificates of indebtedness, which have become almost routine during the past 10 years, allow the state to move funds around for cash-flow purposes.

Issuing the certificates requires agreement from legislative leaders, and the state has already issued $550 million worth during the current fiscal year.

But this time, House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, and Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, refused.

They demanded that Sebelius, a Democrat, cut the budget first to close an increasing revenue gap.

It's nice to know that even after the Bush Years, we can still blame the Republican party for pain and suffering.

Looks like I won't be paying my mortgage or renewing my auto insurance this week!

Chris

Comments

[fortyozspartan.livejournal.com]

The take-away of recent political events for me has been this:

Republicans are in fact assholes.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Also the Democrats (see Illinois...).

[sf-reader.livejournal.com]

This was on all the local TV news last night.

If Kansas isn't paying its debts, perhaps we should stop sending in the withholding tax.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'm all for it! Problem is, if the legislature does it, it's just politics as usual. If we do it, we go to jail.

But what if everyone in the state stopped paying their withholding? Like a strike until they get their house in order?

[open-design.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about this. The mortgage payment, though, is such a black mark on your credit ratings that it would be worth taking out a credit card loan on. Also, as the crisis resolves, building an emergency fund. Best of luck!

[open-design.livejournal.com]

Oops for some reason, this logged under the wrong account. It's Shelly, not OD.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Well, I pay ahead because of my weird paycheck schedule (I get paid 10 months/year), so this means I'll only be one month ahead instead of two.

[amjhawk.livejournal.com]

Arg, so that's what that was about. I went out to my car this morning, started it up to get the de-icing process going, and heard "Kathleen Sebelius something something" on NPR, but I missed it because I had to like, get stuff from the house and then scrape the car.

Anyway, that's lame. On the bright side, it does seem the R party is sowing the seeds of its own demise or a radical restructuring (one of which needs to happen) - but that's a more distant good after immediate pain.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

We can only hope the Repubs self-destruct. Perhaps we could replace them with the Green Party. Hm, probably not. How about a viable Libertarian Party? Yeah, I'd go for that.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Shades of the Gingrich Tantrum--only even more destructive.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Yay, politics!

[roya-spirit.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if I seem blase about this, but from what I gathered on the news, it's what they usually do anyway.

It's just that this is being made into more of the "OMG, THE ECONOMY IS COLLAPSING" doom-doom! media fodder.
And that they always put it through at the last moment.
We just aren't privy to that info.. usually.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's a little different, what with not paying income-tax refunds since last week....

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I swear, my jaw just dropped - seriously, not pay the state employees? They clearly are out of their fucking minds - who do the state Republicans think is doing all their daily work? Not to mention the higher ed employees!

And WTF - a budget cut certainly isn't going to happen by Friday! And I suspect the revenue gap is because of the current economic woes caused by their previous, "illustrious" leader.

I hope some resolution is found in time.

I am not a fan of Governor Goodhair (Perry) by any stretch, but at least he and the comptroller are on the same page, and everyone here is getting paid. :-\

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah. See, Kansas has the joy of this arrangement: a progressive Democratic governor who gets to deal with a backwards Republican legislature. We often get to witness hilarious political hijinx.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

One other thought: I believe it's actually illegal not to pay people for work performed (an engineering firm I used to work at tried to ask people to work for no pay, post-9/11, and they were told it was illegal to do that, so they just laid off a bunch of us instead).

Perhaps some attorney somewhere ought to take up the cause... :-\

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oh, I suspect Msrs. O’Neal and Morris will receive enough crap from their constituents that they'll have to relent. But this publicity stunt will also mean Sebelius will need to deal with the budget or face these jerks doing this over and over.

Why don't we just print more money and go back to pretending it means real value?

[the-themiscyran.livejournal.com]

I say that all state employees go on strike if the Republicans actually do this. I wonder if they're being particularly nasty because of the new rumors about Sebelius heading off to Washington?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I'm all for it! (Though I'd have to be a scab on my teaching days....)

What rumor is this?

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

omgggggggg!!!! you are in some personal disaster zone!!!!! first the ebay thing, and now you're not being paid?

that is incredible, tho. i don't know how they can justify not paying people.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the two together are pretty awesome.

[astein142.livejournal.com]

Argh!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Aye, matey.

[ericreynolds.livejournal.com]

have blocked the normal loan process to coerce our Democratic governor to do their bidding

Sebelius is smarter than they think, but a R tactic to make Gov (or the party if she leaves for DC) look bad would be just the thing to help the Rs gain more support for... OMG I can't write it...my keyboard keys are refusing to depress, my fingers are shaking... Governor Brownback. Can you imagine that? Following up Sebelius with Brownback? What an unimaginable disaster.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Aaaah! My eyes, the bleed!

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Oh, Chris, I am sorry. That sucks.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Let's hope this is just a publicity stunt and means nothing.

[tully01.livejournal.com]

It's mutual blackmail and brinksmanship. The guv's hands aren't clean here either. I'll lay even money they cut a deal in the next 48 hours.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I bet you're right.

[regine735.livejournal.com]

Makes me sad and mad all at once.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I'm with you exactly.

[indigodreamer.livejournal.com]

Marci Francisco e-mailed me around 5:30 to say that Sebelius signed the 2009 appropriations bill into law. If this is true (I assume it is, but I'm curious to listen to the news), we're getting paid, but we lost the budget battle.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I heard that. I hope her line-item vetoes make the difference.

[athenaartemis.livejournal.com]

They're withholding money from the public schools besides just not paying them. Shawnee Mission is being forced to cut gifted ed teachers all over the place. Next year, there will be no more gifted paraprofessionals and most of the middle schools will only have one gifted teacher. Also, they're cutting five middle school teacher positions.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Aaargh! Seriously? Isn't this something Sebelius is line-item killing?

[replicawatch101.livejournal.com]

The people do have the government they deserve, they voted it in. Admire the Republicans the way they keep insisting to sleep in the bed they made.
Income Tax India (https://myitreturn.com)