The mistake Kansas voters have made this past election is a grave one.

By re-electing Governor Sam Brownback, Kansans have either chosen by conscious thought, or been deceived by a well-funded political machine, to continue on a path of economic despair.

The irony of our economic collapse is Brownback’s Janus-faced position on corporate personhood – as Janus is a mythical, two-faced Roman god.

To explain, in the 2008 election season, Citizens United, the Political Action Committee, sought to broadcast TV ads for a video-on-demand film criticizing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but doing so would violate the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which kept corporations and unions from paying for media that mentioned any candidate in periods immediately preceding elections.

Citizens United challenged the law, suing the Federal Election Commission (which sets campaign finance laws and election rules). The case made its way through lower courts until an appeal was granted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Justices declared the government restriction on “independent” political spending by corporations and unions unconstitutional and determined the anti-Clinton broadcast should have been allowed. The ruling created the idea of corporate personhood – corporations being perceived as and given the rights of individuals by the U.S. government.

This ruling on its own did not destroy the Kansas economy, but Brownback’s misuse of it has. While Brownback considered corporations to be individuals when gaining campaign funding, he disregarded their apparent personhood when eliminating income taxes for approximately 191,000 businesses. While Brownback claimed the tax cut would spur economic growth, just the opposite is true. Though the majority of the nation has largely recovered from the Great Recession, Kansas is still being forced to make huge budget cuts. By July of this year, Kansas will face a budget shortfall upwards of $279M, and will face another of over $436M by this time next year. Not surprisingly, these totals are roughly equal to the taxes that would have been collected on these exempt businesses.

By not fully acknowledging the Citizens United case that defined corporate personhood, Brownback has driven Kansas into the ground. If one is to recognize businesses as individuals in one circumstance, they must be acknowledged as such in all circumstances. There are no “special” individuals. All must pay taxes; all must have the same rights; all must have the same responsibilities. Brownback’s disregard of individual equality on its own is a gross and unacceptable action, but the effects of this economic slump are even more atrocious.

Because of the aforementioned budget shortfalls, mammoth cuts will continue to be made. Less money will be put towards the correction and integration of prisoners into society, cuts will be made to necessary social services, college tuition will continue to rise at an alarming rate and elementary and secondary education funding will be diminished greatly. The greatest blow will surely be the cuts to education at all levels, as Brownback’s complete disregard for the needs of our educational system has already been illustrated through past budget cuts and court cases.

The next four years will most certainly be nightmarish as we continue down this path and it will directly affect us as students. Teachers were already being denied their rights and protections because of Brownback’s administration, so now school district administrators will be able to fire their teachers with ease as massive budget cuts continue. Drastic budget cuts will lead to the loss of funding to non-core classes, extracurriculars will disappear and our parents will have less money to spend as local property taxes will surely rise to off-set the State-level cuts.

Brownback’s actions have already proved that his loyalties do not lie with the people of Kansas, but instead with corporations. In the following years, it seems that this will continue to be proven as he destroys our economic, societal and educational future as a state. We are headed down a path that is entangled with corporate money with Brownback’s lone, steady, pounding mantra being, ‘businesses are special, give them our money.’