How conservatism's grand tax experiment fell apart

Sam Brownback has shown the folly of supply-side economics in real time

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel))

Later today, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback will unveil his proposals for repairing the state’s gaping budget hole. His task is a cruel one, and largely of his own making. It's also a useful glimpse into the limits of Republican economic thinking at the foundational level.

In 2012 and 2013, Brownback and Kansas Republicans passed what has become infamously known as a kind of grand experiment in tax policy. A top income tax rate of 6.45 percent for families making over $60,000 was eliminated completely. Rates dropped from 6.25 to 4.9 percent for those making over $30,000, and from 3.5 to 3 percent for those making less, with further reductions for the former bracket to come. “Pass through” companies — whose profits go directly to their owners rather than to a corporate legal entity — saw their state taxes reduced to zero.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.