Kansas: A Microcosm for the Debate over Cuts and Job Creation

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback privatized the state's art agency this week by signing a bill that stripped all state funding. Brownback was elected Governor after a 2010 campaign based on job creation. His privatization of the state art's agency was a way to reduce the deficit.

But...not really.

Brownback based his decision on the return that the state of Vermont got when it privatized its arts agency.

Except...not.

In an open letter to governor Brownback, Vermont Arts Council Executive Director Alex Aldrich debunked his claim saying that all states should have a publicly-supported arts program, citing that Vermont got a whopping 775% return on its investment.

As for job creation, or reducing the deficit....not so much.

According to an LATimes Article covering the story, the arts commission generates $95.1 million in household income and $15.6 million to state and local revenues. They are also forfeiting an $800,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and another $400,000 grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance. Arts non-profits who receive funding from the state's coffers also employ over 4,600.

This fight in Kansas is a microcosm for a larger debate over cuts and job creation. Somehow, in the minds of Congressional Republicans, there is no conflict between drastic and painful cuts and job creation. Republican governors all over the country have chosen to exploit this directive to make cuts to programs that they have a moral objection to: Planned Parenthood, National Public Radio, Environmental Protection and the Arts. This is pure political opportunism.

There is a contempt amongst Republican ranks towards every aspect of the government, including public workers. They don't view them as people, but moreso as collateral damage in the process of growing the economy and creating jobs. But, when you make drastic cuts to programs, like Brownback did, you lose the economic support that those programs provide to public entities (like grants from the NEA) and you layoff thousands. In the name of debt reduction you have destroyed jobs, reduced a financial support line for private business and...well...not reduced the deficit. A recent report on layoffs reported that 40% of all layoffs in April were from public workers. Hey...they're people too.

There has to be a "come-to-jesus-moment" (no pun intended) for Republicans of this ilk: drastic budget cuts means layoffs, and layoffs means less jobs.