Candidate for governor and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft released his tax “plan,” which enlists “some of the well-known conservative economists and low-tax advocates that advised then-Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on a massive tax cut enacted in that state in 2012,” which helped result in “Republicans losing the Kansas governorship in the 2018 election,” the Missouri Independent reported. 

Stephen Moore, Jonathan Williams, Grover Norquist, and Art Laffer were all named as “experts” that Ashcroft plans to “appoint” to a “task force” to “make recommendations” on Missouri’s budget and economy. All four men played a role in former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s implementation of the dangerous and reckless “tax experiment” that tanked the state’s economy, underfunded public schools, and robbed the state’s highway fund. 

Former Gov. Brownback’s plan slashed the state’s income tax and allowed for major tax cuts for the wealthy, blowing up Kansas’ budget. This left Kansas’ middle and working-class families behind to pick up the pieces, schools without the resources they needed for students to thrive, and roads and bridges without the necessary infrastructure updates they needed to ensure safe travel across the state. 

Brownback’s disastrous “tax experiment” was so damaging and unpopular that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature came together to reverse it, and, after campaigning on restoring fiscal responsibility and balancing the budget, helped Gov. Laura Kelly sail to victory in 2018 and again in 2022 against two Brownback acolytes. 

“If Jay Ashcroft thinks Missourians will let him take our state to the brink of economic collapse like Brownback and his cronies did to Kansas, he is mistaken,” said Missouri Democratic Party Chair Russ Carnahan. “We watched as Brownback gutted our neighbors’ public schools and tanked the economy to slash taxes for his wealthy donors and friends. We won’t let Jay Ashcroft do the same here in Missouri.”

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Media Contact: 

Chelsea Rodriguez, Communications Director

press@missouridems.org