Press Release
October 20, 2006
For Immediate Release

Fiscal issues appear likley to remain at the forefront of the Kansas gubernatorial race. Governor Sebelius' reelection campaign has been cruising easily despite efforts by State Senator Jim Barnett to raise the subsidy for illegal aliens and tax issues in his paid campaign commercials. Since Sebelius is likely to have raised more campaign cash going into the election and a heated race for attorney general is tapping out many donors, it should be cruise control time for her reelection.

However, the economic related speed bumps keep appearing and that keeps polls like Rasmussen (www.rasmussenreports.com) indicate her support for reelection is below 50 percent. Less than 50 percent polling is always troubling for incumbents and explains so much of the news coverage about GOP incumbents who are polling less than 50 percent as being in electoral trouble. There are a couple of third party challengers who will pull a few votes and could allow the governor to win with under 50 percent. That's how Bill Clinton won nationally in 1992 and 1996.

Governor Sebelius received more bad news when the fiscally conservative CATO Institute (www.cato.org) gave her a "D" on their latest tax scorecard for governors in all 50 states. "Kathleen Sebelius finishes her first term with a grade influenced heavily by her insistence on proposing tax hikes on her states' residents who already labor under one of the 20 highest tax burdens in the nation. During her (2002) campaign, she vowed to veto any tax increases ... .In 2004 she proposed a tax hike that included an increase in the sales tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5.7 percent by 2007, a 5 percent 'surcharge' on state income taxes, and a property tax increase. The legislature killed the governor's proposal ... .As she runs for reelection this year, Sebelius can no longer claim she is the anti-tax candidate," the CATO report (www.cato.org) said.

This is a far cry from the accolades Governor Sebelius is claiming when liberal Time Magazine listed her on their best governors list while listing fiscal conservatives like South Carolina's Mark Sanford as among the worst. The CATO Institute study was dismissed by Governor Sebelius' staff but it is interesting to note that CATO ranked a number of Democratic governors with "B" and "C" grades including neighboring Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, who signed into law an end to the Oklahoma death tax and has signed two reductions in Oklahoma's personal income tax during his first term in office.

Another speed bump for the Sebelius campaign is the terrible trend in private sector jobs in Kansas. Despite a strong recovery in the Wichita aircraft industry, the job growth in the private sector places Kansas at the bottom of all 50 states. Americans for Prosperity's Kansas chapter (www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?state=ks) pointed out that Kansas is 50th in private sector job growth but is now #2 in government job growth for the first nine months of 2006, according to most recent data from the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics. AFP-Kansas reported that, "In order to address this problem, we have to recognize that we have a problem, and unfortunately, too many of our elected leaders respond to the challenge with misleading information, meaningless anecdotes, and defensiveness."

Worsening this situation is the recent federal data showing that Kansas personal income growth continues to lag behind national growth. This demonstrates why state revenue growth, while substantial, still lags behind national growth rates. These are fiscal problems for Governor Sebelius today, as well as whoever gets elected governor November 7. The economic problems in Kansas are a problem for Governor Sebelius' campaign but this fiscal decline is driving Kansans elsewhere to chase the American dream