Following up on my argument that Kansans are what’s the matter with Kansas, and perhaps the awfulness of the state’s economy should be laid at their feet rather than those of Democratic or Republican politicians, here’s the opening of Luke Brinker’s Salon piece about state finances at the dawn of Brownback 2.0:

“Less than one week after Kansas voters narrowly reelected Gov. Sam Brownback despite the disastrous budgetary consequences of his massive tax cuts for the wealthy, state analysts announced Monday that the state’s fiscal outlook is even more dire than initially realized.

We’ve known for some time that Brownback’s supply-side experiment has been a big budget-buster. Thanks to the governor’s tax cuts, Kansas collected $330 million less revenue than expected for fiscal year 2014 — $700 million below revenue for fiscal 2013. Despite the Brownback administration’s assurances that the state’s fiscal picture would improve — any day now! — the state’s revenue from July to September came up an astonishing 10 percent short of expectations.

The numbers released yesterday are even worse.”