In July 2012, two months after GOP Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a substantial state income-tax cut into law, he issued a forecast: “Our new pro-growth tax policy will be like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.”

The economic jolt that ensued was perhaps not what Brownback envisioned.

From the end of 2012 to early 2016, Kansas’ GDP grew at less than half the national rate. Cuts in state revenue forced K-12 schools to close early and led to funding reductions for universities. To balance the budget, Brownback siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from state highway funds. Moody's twice downgraded the state's bond rating. As of November, Kansas was still laboring to close a $345 million budget hole.

The 2012 cut was to be, according to those who advised Brownback, the first step toward eliminating that state's income tax.

While Kansas took a different tack, ending the state’s income tax is also the goal of GOP lawmakers in recently announced measures in Michigan’s House and Senate.

House Speaker Tom Leonard of DeWitt is backing a bill sponsored by Rep. Lee Chatfield of Levering that would cut the state's 4.25 percent income tax to 3.9 percent in January 2018. The plan then calls for further rollbacks of 0.1 percent each year until the tax is eliminated over 40 years. State Sen. Jack Brandenburg of Macomb County, meanwhile, said he intends to introduce a bill to scrap the income tax over just five years.

Both plans would erase what is today a $9 billion annual revenue stream – more than a third of total state tax revenue. Backers of the proposals have not said where funds to compensate for that loss would come from.

The proposals are stirring a familiar economic debate, amid warnings by critics that the tax plans could render Michigan another Kansas -- while shifting a higher tax burden on state residents with the lowest incomes.

The House bill would slash income tax revenue by more than $800 million in its first year, and about $200 million a year thereafter.

In a statement to Bridge Magazine, Leonard spokesman Gideon D'Assandro said: “We would rather have Michigan's hard-working taxpayers keep the money they've earned, instead of a government agency. They are able to make the best decisions for their families.”