Friend,

I could not be more excited for this once-in-a-generation opportunity to truly reform our tax system.

Since 1986, the American people have not seen a meaningful update in federal tax policy. They have been asking for it for decades, and this week, we’ve taken a huge step forward in delivering that promise.

More than anything else, the most common complaint I hear about the existing tax system is it’s complexity. With this in mind, we aim to make it possible to file your taxes on …a postcard. This simpler, quicker and easier system will give working and middle class Kansans the same access to the tax code as someone who has hired teams of accountants and lawyers to seek out every loophole.

These aren’t just abstract changes for those who don’t need it. Ideas like repealing the death tax, and allowing the first $12,000 of income for individuals and $24,000 for couples to be tax-free, and married couples to keep the first $24,000, are tangible ways that this reform will allow more money to stay in your pocket.

This fairer, simpler system will be a huge relief for the working and middle class. Gone are the days of a 75,000-page tax code full of favors and loopholes for the most powerful, wealthy and well-connected. This reform is overdue, and why many of my colleagues and I came to this body – to bring real-world, commonsense reform for our generation, for our kids, and for our grandkids.

To see our detailed plan, and to weigh in click here!

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or know of ways my office can be of assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

In the House

WATCH: Politico Live

Watch our POLITICO Live from earlier this week at the Newseum. My colleagues from the medical field and I discussed what we can do to increase transparency and lower costs. My panel starts at around the 54 minute mark.

Military Academy Nominations

My office will be accepting applications to attend the United States service academies through Friday, Oct. 6!

Individuals ages 17 to 22 residing in Kansas’ 1st Congressional district may apply. All applications can be submitted on my website at marshall.house.gov.

For questions or more information, call 620-765-7800.

Honoring the 40th anniversary of the Food Stamp Act of 1977

This week we take time to celebrate the historic and irreplaceable work that has been done since the establishment of the bipartisan Food Stamp Act of 1977. This Act tackled the issue of malnutrition and hunger across our nation. Without the bipartisan work of our very own Senator Dole, and South Dakota’s Senator McGovern, the state of nutrition in our nation would be completely different than what we see today. Just as Senators Dole and McGovern came together to fight hunger and poverty, we must renew this bipartisan commitment to strengthening our anti-hunger safety net and ending hunger once and for all.

After rebuking and humiliating their critics, ignoring academic research and floating their legacy bond that “people they talked to” told them would pass, then failing to accept any blame for its failure or account for the expended human and material resources wasted in that failed effort, the USD 489 School Board is unashamedly going to risk another chunk of the taxpayers time and money to take another shot in the dark this November.

They are again proceeding with no valid survey data from the voters. The new bond still includes gymnasiums, the exact thing research has shown are “bond killers.” They seem to be repeating the same promotional strategies that reach only the voters already committed to the bond.

They waste money sending out mailers telling uncommitted voters what they should want, rather than solicitations asking what the voters do want or what they will vote for. They seem to think that subjecting voters with no children in public schools to a guilt trip, rather trying to convince them the Board is sensitive to their situation and trying to be as frugal and efficient as possible, will glean support.

The last bond was extremely large for a community of this size, but it failed mostly because the voters lacked trust in the USD 489 Board. They have done nothing since to improve trust. Quite the contrary. The incompetence they demonstrated in the last bond election and failure to accept responsibility for its failure now leave voters with no faith that they could even construct a bond competently.
The newly proposed $78.5 million bond is large for a district of this size, but would be doable under a trustworthy board. But it is the lack of trust in the School Board and resentment toward an unrepentant group who chooses to again risk taxpayer’s dollars and direly needed resources that could be easily acquired with a smaller bond that will ultimately cause it to fail.

The Board needs to embrace transparency, humility, science and logic.

Therefore, to pass a school bond, the Board should 1) present a summary of the resources expended already on last year’s failed bond effort, 2) apologize to the voters for the mistakes they made which caused the bond to fail, 3) conduct valid research into voter preferences and intended levels of financial support, and 4) construct a bond based on voter feedback.

With FHSU’s help, this could all be done in the fall of 2017, and a successful school bond passed in spring of 2018. Instead, the Board, whether from denial or hubris, will deliver to us this fall only a troubling sense of déjà vu. To be sure, they will shrug that failure off as apathetically as their last. After all, they’ll conclude, it wasn’t our fault, and we can always take another shot in the dark next year.

Meanwhile, construction costs go up, and the kids and teachers go another year without the resources they need the most.

Gary Brinker, Hays