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Five months ago I delivered the State of the State address to the Kansas Legislature.
That night I said we had an opportunity to Have an historic session.
That this could be a session where we not only protected what we've built over the past hundred
fifty years,
but we could also plan for the future.
There were a lot of skeptics at the time and rightly so.
We were in the depths of the greatest recession since the Great Depression.
Many doubted whether we can protect what we have
let alone prepare for the future.
But at the end of the session we proved the skeptics wrong
and delivered a final product that the people of Kansas can be proud of.
Our declining revenues forced us to make tough decisions.
We started by cutting over a billion dollars out of our six billion dollar budget.
Only when we could cut no more
did we increase revenues by three hundred million.
And by doing so we have now done what almost No other state has done.
We have solved our major budget problems and are ready to prosper.
In the process we passed one of the biggest job bills in the history of Kansas.
We did this by raising three hundred million dollars with a three-year, one-cent sales
tax
and targeting that revenue in job creation areas.
This temporary sales tax will have lasting Benefits.
It kept us from having to lay off thousands of teachers across the state;
and it allowed us to adopt a transportation plan that will create safer roads around
the state
and employ thousands of Kansans;
And it allowed us to protect our elderly and disabled with an ample safety net.
This great achievement happen in the same way that every accomplishment in Topeka occurs.
We put petty politics aside;
Democrats and Republicans from all over the state worked together to do what was right for
Kansans.
Of course there are critics.
Some special interest groups that are funded by very wealthy organizations or individuals
that will criticize any plan
that funds government.
They claim that the thirty-six month one cent sales tax will cost Kansas jobs.
But all of the evidence indicates this won’t happen
In 2002 we were a similar budget position and raised the sales tax.
Kansas actually created over 40,000 jobs for the next three years,
and with this budget we know that this can happen again.
We protected our schools, universities and safety net and then we went even further.
We planned for the future of with our transportation plan.
We once again proved that when people set politics aside and work together
great results will occur.
Kansas is on the road to recovery and we’ll continue working hard every day
to bring us back to prosperity.