Drucker is no longer with us; if he were, he might want to have a few words with Republican Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas. Brownback, despite promising to measure the results of a real life experiment in cutting taxes, has decided to cancel a quarterly report on the status of the states economy.
Although Brownbacks spokeswoman said a lot of people were confused by the report, no one has been fooled. The problem was that the reports didnt match the governors predictions for the states soon-to-be-booming economy. Local news media, including the Topeka Capital-Journal and the Kansas City Star, flagged the abandonment of the reports as evidence not only of policy failure, but as an attempt to hide that fact from the public.
Brownback had asked his Council of Economic Advisors to report to him to measure the impact of the tax cuts -- likely because he expected good things. His critics have delighted in pointing out that the quarterly report was cancelled after it showed the opposite economic effect of what Brownback had promised. He specifically asked the council to hold him accountable through rigorous performance metrics, Heidi Holliday, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
A summary of the Brownback record shows:
- Kansas gross state product fell behind the six-state region and the nation for the third straight year. (Kansas gross state product grew at a faster rate when compared to the region and the nation in three of the five years before Brownback took office in 2011).
- Private industry wages in Kansas grew at a slower pace last year than they did in the region and the U.S. -- as they did during the past five years.
- The number of private business establishments in Kansas trailed both the region and the nation for the last year, again continuing a five-year trend.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-24/kansas-ends-bad-economic-news-by-not-reporting-it