Kansas is heading toward its own fiscal cliff, like the nation as a whole, and Gov. Sam Brownback has almost single-handedly driven us to the edge of this abyss. He must now lead his conservative majorities in the legislature in avoiding financial disaster.

Brownback deserves credit for restraining state spending during his first two years in office and for building up healthy balances, with big help in revenue growth from the "temporary" sales tax increase of 2010. He pulled Kansas out of the financial ditch but then quickly steered the state toward a deeper chasm by signing a rushed and flawed tax bill.

Another legislative session coming up, another attempted overreach by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

The conservative Republican has said he will again ask the Legislature to give his office the power to search out and prosecute suspected cases of voter fraud. Let’s hope lawmakers turn him down, as they did the last time he asked.

Prosecuting voter fraud is currently the job of county prosecutors. Kobach says those offices are overworked, and voter fraud isn’t a high priority with them.

Washburn University is hosting a post-election round table Thursday evening to discuss the happenings of the latest election season.

The round table, entitled “What happened and What’s next,” will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Room 102 at the Washburn law school.

The gathering is free and open to the public.

TOPEKA — Kansas officials haven’t kept a running tally of state tax cuts versus tax increases, but two little-circulated reports prepared in recent years show that since 1995, the dollar values of the tax cuts have outpaced the increases by more than three to one, or about $15.6 billion in tax reductions versus about $4.6 billion in tax increases. And that was before the biggest tax cut in state history was signed into law in May.