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MainStream Coalition and the Kansas Center for Economic Growth present a legislative forum:

Kansas' Cautionary Tax Tale: A Model of What Not to Do

Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 7pm

Doors open at 6:30 for social time.

Matt Ross Community Center

Speakers:

Michael Leachman, research director for the state policy division of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Duane Goossen, Senior Fellow at Kansas Center for Economic Growth

Moderator: David Morantz, MainStream Board Member

Four years ago Kansas enacted unprecedented, disastrous tax policy. While experts warned of the fall out, what’s happened in Kansas has come at great cost with few, if any, of the promises made having come to fruition. As Kansans and policymakers come to terms with the vast damage done to Kansas as the result of the extremist experiment, hear from two experts who will offer a national and state perspective on Kansas’ Cautionary Tale.

Michael Leachman is the research director for the state policy division of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institute that designs and supports public policies that help families and communities thrive. 

Leachman's team at the Center has developed a state fiscal policy agenda for building stronger state economies, produced a set of recommendations for making state budgeting processes more transparent and useful to policymakers and the public, and analyzed a wide range of state policy proposals including unaffordable tax cuts, needed criminal justice reforms, and smart investments in poor children and their families.   

Prior to joining the Center in 2009, Leachman was a policy analyst for nine years at the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP).  His work at OCPP included research on corporate income taxes, reserve funds, spending limits, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

Earlier in his career, Leachman worked as a community organizer in Chicago and, during graduate school, conducted a range of research projects in collaboration with community organizations.

 Leachman holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Loyola University Chicago.

Duane Goossen is the Kansas Center for Economic Growth’s senior fellow. Before joining the Center, Duane was a seven-term member of the Kansas House of Representatives and a budget director for 12 years under three governors. Duane graduated from Bethel College in North Newton, Kan., and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.