Apparently this is really happening – it is not a joke.
Kansas state government is on the verge of a financial windfall with the auctioning of thousands of sex toys seized by the revenue department for nonpayment of income, withholding and sales taxes, an official said Wednesday.
Online shoppers for adult DVDs, novelty items, clothing and other products can participate in a bonanza shopping experience resulting from the four-county raid on a Kansas company known as United Outlets LLC.
[…]
Consumers interested in the auction of “1000s of items” can examine the goods online or personally preview products Monday at a warehouse in Kansas City, Mo. The auction closes Tuesday.
The online site lists about 400 lots — individual lots can contain dozens of items — that include the Pipedream Fantasy Love Swing, books, hundreds of DVDs, sex and drinking games, a wide assortment of sexually oriented equipment, carrying cases for devices, the Glass Pleasure Wand, bundles of lingerie and the Cyberskin Foot Stroker.
One of the lots contained 50 “premium” vibrators and a teddy bear. The bidding was at $10.
Also available: two sets of sparkling sequin lounge pants, sizes large and small, as well as the Good Girl, Bad Girl Wrist Cuffs.
“What is different is the titillation factor of what we’re selling,” said Jeannine Koranda, spokeswoman for the Kansas revenue department. “This is an unusual lot of items.”
In all all-too-familiar parallel to Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback passed a massive tax cut in Kansas in 2012, arguing the massive tax cut would boost that state’s economy. However, two years later Kansans are finding out that tax cuts aren’t an economic panacea, as that state now faces a budget deficit in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kansas is now hundreds of millions of dollars short in revenue collection, its job growth has lagged the rest of the nation, and Moody’s has cut the state’s bond rating. “Governor Brownback came in here with an agenda to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, and create a great economic boom,” says University of Kansas professor Burdett Loomis. “Now there’s been a dramatic decline in revenues, no great increase in economic activity, and we’ve got red ink until the cows come home.”
Is anyone noticing a pattern here?
Massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy in Wisconsin – sluggish economic growth.
Massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy in Kansas – sluggish economic growth.
Perhaps it’s time for Republicans to admit their economic policies are crap.
All you need to know:
Apparently, solid proof that Tea Party economics always fail is lost on them.
So THAT’S how Scotty will close the deficit! After all, if one Koch-run state does something, the rest will follow as soon as they can.
Here’s the difference:
Kansas got the merchandise when the Revenue Department seized it for nonpayment of taxes. What a business-unfriendly state Kansas is!
In Wisconsin, the company would have gotten a bunch of tax breaks in the budget, then a big loan from WEDC which they forget to pay back. Then they would have shipped a few of their jobs to China, then maybe gotten a few more bucks for promising to create some jobs. This scenario assumes the usual donations to the appropriate people, of course.
REALLY??? Wow! What the hell’s going on in this country? WHY IS THIS NEWS?