Sun Shines in KS; Eagle Digs Grave for Sunlight

This story in the Wichita Eagle is hilarious.

You can really just read the headline, Personal Incomes in Kansas Jump, because the reporter used two sentences to say that personal income in Kansas was the seventh best in the nation.

I'm almost 1000% positive that if the story were the opposite, if Kansas income growth (or decline) was seventh worst in the nation, this would be a front page story about how the Brownback agenda has decimated the Kansas economy. It would feature some photo of a down-on-his-luck guy in torn, dirty clothes and his long suffering, big-eyed and starving children begging in the streets. But since it's good news suggesting many of Brownback's policies are making Kansas the envy of other states, it nets just two paragraphs and absolutely no words offered to the policies that may have helped us grow.

The current narrative about how Kansans are suffering is complete nonsense. When compared to other states, Kansas is doing just fine and in many cases, we're doing better than other states. 

And then there's this story in the Hill, a Washington, D.C. political paper. The chart below really tells the full story.

Where other states are facing massive revenue declines, Kansas is one of the few states that boasted year-over-year growth in tax receipts. Our revenue growth was 9 percent. Nationwide, the state revenue declined, while Kansas grew. (I think we can tie some of this growth to Kansas' wise decision NOT to expand Medicaid.)

However, good luck finding these stories in local media. (or if you do, it's a two paragraph kicker on page 8,000.) They're too busy bashing the guy at the top and our once conservative legislature for wise decision-making that is positioning Kansas for growth.

If the local media could dig a hole and bury the sun until Brownback leaves office, reporters would be lined up outside the Capitol with shovels.