While only six of 53 Kansas state legislators who signed Americans for Tax Reform's no-tax pledge kept it, founder Grover Norquist told
Newsmax TV on Tuesday that he was confident that lawmakers would honor the agreement.
"Yes, in Kansas, there was a tax increase," Norquist told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "But the good news is that in most states where people have taken the pledge, they were holding the line — and we've done a very good job of cutting taxes in many of the red states.
"Unfortunate backsliding in Kansas," added said. "We need to get back to reining in spending there."
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Since 2012, 53 of the Sunflower State's 165 lawmakers have signed pledges with ATF and Americans for Prosperity,
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports.
All were Republicans — and only six have kept the pledge. Most of the others recently joined with Democrats to send the state's largest tax increase ever to GOP Gov. Sam Brownback for approval.
"The governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, has been a real hero," Norquist told Berliner. "He does have some problems with the legislature that's not been willing to rein in spending.
"They should have a moratorium on new hires while they get their arms around some 50-year history of overspending that they're trying to counteract," he said.
Norquist predicted that the legislators would eventually "stand by the pledge, because the pledge is to the American people.
"It's not to me. I just report on whether there's a threat to it or whether somebody keeps it or breaks it.
"The good news is that the people who take the pledge have made that commitment to the American people, to the citizens of their state," Norquist added. "It rarely gets broken.
"Kansas is a disappointment, but in most states and here in Washington, D.C., with the Congress, people are holding the line.
"We haven't allowed a tax increase to be enacted since the Republicans got control back of Congress."
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