By DAVE TRABERT

If President Ronald Reagan witnessed Gov. Mark Parkinson's press conference last Friday, he likely would have said, "There you go again ..." in response to Parkinson's claim that $9 billion in tax cuts are to blame for the budget crisis. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-.S.C., might have put it less delicately, but both would have been justified in challenging the governor's claims.

The $9 billion dollar figure comes from a Department of Revenue estimate of the effect of selective tax changes enacted between 1995 and 2009. The largest item is a bogus property tax "reduction" of $4.4 billion. It's the difference between collecting 35 mills for school funding versus the current 20 mills. The change was made in the mid-1990s following property revaluation to offset large valuation increases and approximate the same revenue.

Parkinson also claims that big business and wealthy people benefited the most from those changes, with "ordinary Kansans" receiving virtually nothing. Well, there he goes again. The second largest amount is car tax reductions at $1.4 billion. A lot of ordinary Kansans benefitted from that one. Other large tax reductions Parkinson is overlooking include:

* $616.6 million to reduce the single-income rate;

* $446.5 million to increase the earned income tax credit;

* $368.7 million to increase the personal exemption;

* $356.6 million to increase the food sales tax rebate;

* and $174.2 million to increase the standard deduction.

It's also important to understand that most of the changes on that misleading $9 billion list were implemented in the 1990s following 75 percent revenue growth from 1990 to 1998, much faster than necessary to sustain spending. Government easily could afford to reduce the tax burden and the vast majority of that relief was directed to "ordinary Kansans."

So what about the governor's claim that tax reductions are to blame for the budget crisis? Again, cue President Reagan. Revenue grew another 41 percent over the next 10 years and well beyond inflation. At the same time, however, general fund spending grew 61 percent. That is the reason we're in this mess.

Then there's the claim that the state has already reduced spending by more than a billion dollars. There he goes again! Prior to changes announced last week, the governor's own estimate put FY2010 spending at $5,451 billion; last year's actual spending was $6.064 billion.

That's a reduction of $613 million; a big number to be sure, but not even close to a billion dollars.

The facts clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of our budget problems stem from spending well beyond our means. President Reagan once explained it as only he could: "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

Speaking of no responsibility, Governor Parkinson failed to mention that he not only voted for, but actually led the charge for some of the sales tax exemptions for which he now castigates the legislature for passing.

It's bad enough having to work our way out of a budget situation that is largely self-inflicted.

Distorting or ignoring the facts to justify a tax increase is a disservice to "ordinary Kansans."

Dave Trabert is president of Kansas Policy Institute. He is a frequent speaker to business, legislative and civic groups and also does research and writes on fiscal policy and education issues. He most recently authored "Volume III: Analysis of K-12 Spending in Kansas" in "A Kansas Primer on Education Funding."