Good news from Topeka

Well, mostly:

Speed limit ought to be going up to 75. Frankly, I think it ought to be eliminated west of Topeka anyway. Kansas has some of the best, straightest, flattest 4-lane interstates in the country. And almost nobody drives on them. What a waste of good adrenaline.

Arts leeches advocates will be rallying at the Capitol at 1:00 today. Hope they pass a hat*.

Liquor reform may be coming, which should mean wines at the grocery store instead of state-controlled hovels that charge 50% more than they ought. Due to its Progressive and Populist history, Kansas has long had some of the most restrictive and frankly bizarre liquor laws in the nation. Suffice it to say that except on rare occasions, I buy all my wine and liquor in Missouri.

The House budget committee has passed a bill that would reduce the amount spent on Kansas salaries by 7.5%. Now, obviously I would rather not have my salary cut, but as it applies to all elected officials too**, I'm cool with it. Everybody's gotta suck it up here.

An incredible number of people are whining about past tax cuts in Kansas and how that has hurt the state's finances.  As is often the case, they are exactly wrong.  It is the states with the highest taxes that have the most trouble, because states spend every penny, and that growth multiplies the pain when the downturn arrives. The reason Kansas has such a relatively small problem is because it has a relatively small government in the first place.  It does not pain me that it's getting smaller.

* for what Madame DeFarge once described as, "Beggars begging from beggars"
** Irony: - noun. The head of a state employees union complaining that state employees are underpaid. I know that's what they're supposed to say, but if it's true, maybe state employees need to get a better union.