First off, I’d like offer personal thanks to the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback for joining together to enact the wholesale cuts that essentially eliminate taxation on independent businesses, regardless of size.

In my day job, I work for wages as a professor, and there my taxes have been reduced, but not eliminated. But over the years I have invested in the Free State Brewery (yum) and WheatField’s Bakery (yum, again) in Lawrence, two rental properties and a boutique hotel, as well as had a modest flow of royalties from various books and consulting projects. On this income, my wife and I will pay no taxes, or so it seems.

As someone who engages in various “job-creating” enterprises, I suppose I should be happy that I’ll keep a little more of my income. And perhaps the brewery and the bakery will hire a few more folks, with their newfound wealth.

To tell the truth, however, none of these enterprises has made hiring decisions based on tax policy, although the Free State’s expansion into bottling was certainly eased by very generous federal write-off policies.