Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) in January proposed a tax cut he said would give the state a “fairer, flatter, simpler” tax code, even though it raised taxes on the poor to help pay for a massive tax cut for the top one percent of state residents. Tuesday, Brownback signed an even bigger package into law, even as the state Senate’s top Republican and a host of other conservative lawmakers urged him not to.

The new package, largely backed by Tea Party-affiliated state legislators, abandoned some of Brownback’s proposals that would have hit the poor the hardest, though some still remain. But it will force lawmakers to make even deeper cuts to education and other programs to make up a growing budget gap, the Wall Street Journal reports:

The tax plan, which was the subject of weeks of intense debate and political maneuvering in the legislature, will reduce the top individual state income-tax rate to 4.9% from 6.45% in 2013. It also will eliminate income taxes on non-wage income for about 191,000 small businesses.

The plan likely would require additional cuts in spending on education and social services to cover a reduction in annual tax revenue projected by the Kansas Legislative Research Department to exceed $800 million by 2014, or 12.8% of projected state revenues.

“It is not good public policy,” state Sen. Steve Morris (R), the president of the state Senate, said of the legislation. Other Republicans agreed, including a group of 50 former Kansas Republican lawmakers who attempted to persuade Brownback to veto the bill. “I think Kansas taxpayers need to be asking where the governor would make these cuts,” said Rochelle Chronister, who formerly served as a state representative and as the president of the state GOP, said earlier this month.

Kansas’ tax code is already regressive, as the poorest 20 percent of Kansans paying more than 9 percent of their income in taxes, while the richest 1 percent pay less than 6 percent of theirs. Now, it is even more regressive, and on top of that, poor and middle class Kansans will have to deal with spending cuts that hit social programs on which they depend.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) proposed a tax plan in January that he said would make the state’s tax code “fairer, flatter, simpler” by lowering tax rates for all Kansans. As ThinkProgress noted at the time, Brownback’s plan actually cut taxes for the state’s top 1 percent while raising them on the lower and middle classes.

Facing criticism from policy analysts and lawmakers, Brownback’s plan hung up in the state legislature, where lawmakers have been working to hammer out a compromise plan. Now, however, a group of 50 former Republican lawmakers is calling on Brownback to abandon the plan because it would blow a massive hole in the state budget, jeopardizing schools, roads, and other important programs, the Lawrence Journal-World reports:

Traditional Republicans for Common Sense said the tax bill, if enacted, would put the state in a budget hole that would result in cuts to essential services, such as schools, roads, and nursing home care. The group said it would also lead to increases in local property taxes.

“I think Kansas taxpayers need to be asking where the governor would make these cuts,” said Rochelle Chronister, former assistant majority leader in the House, and former chair of the Kansas Republican Party.

“More importantly, we need to be asking what cuts of this magnitude might look like for working families, retirees and Kansas children,” Chronister, of Neodesha, said.

Original analysis of Brownback’s plan found that it would cost the state $900 million by 2018. A new analysis, released recently, said it would cost only $160 million by 2018, though that plan is based on growth projections in state sales tax revenues that are largely unrealistic.

Brownback has not said how he would make up the lost revenue, instead adhering to the false Republican orthodoxy that the tax cuts wouldn’t affect the budget because they would create jobs and boost economic growth.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has a new tax plan that he is touting as “fairer, flatter, and simpler.” “My plan will lower individual income tax rates for all Kansans,” Brownback claims.

While it’s true on paper that all rates would go down under Brownback’s proposed tax overhaul, it’s certainly not true that all Kansans would be paying lower taxes. Because Brownback’s plan eliminates a variety of credits and deductions upon which lower and middle income taxpayers depend, it would actually increase taxes on low- and middle-income families, while still cutting them for Kansas’ richest one percent. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Police, under the plan:

– The poorest 20 percent of Kansas taxpayers would pay 2.2 percent more of their income in taxes each year, or an average increase of $242.

– The middle 20 percent of Kansas taxpayers would pay 0.3 percent more of their income in taxes each year, or an average increase of $146.

— Upper-income families, by contrast, reap the greatest benefit with the richest one percent of Kansans, those with an average income of over a million dollars, saving an average of $16,933 a year.

As ITEP put it, “Governor Brownback’s tax reform proposal would actually make the Kansas tax structure more unfair and ensure that low and middle income families pay more, while dramatically decreasing state taxes owed by the wealthiest Kansans.”

Kansas’ own Department of Treasury came to the same conclusions, finding that low-income Kansans would see their taxes go up under the plan, sending Brownback’s administration into damage control. And so far, state lawmakers aren’t lining up to lend the plan their support.

“It’s been Robin Hood in reverse,” said state Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D). “What we are doing is stealing from the poor to give to the rich.” “It’s a significant problem in the eyes of many legislators because it appears to be increasing taxes for the poor and decreasing taxes for the rich,” added state Sen. John Vratil (R).