during his campaign for the 2010 election, governor sam brownback said he would get rid of the state income tax. in may 2012, governor brownback signed into law the kansas senate bill substitute hb 2117. starting in 2013, the "ambitious tax overhaul" lowered income tax, got rid of some corporate taxes, and created pass-through income tax exemptions. he raised the sales tax by one percent to make up for the loss of the other taxes. however, the sales tax was not enough to make up for it. he made cuts to education and some state services to make up for the lost revenue. the tax cut led to years of budget shortfalls. the worst was a $350 million budget shortfall in february 2017. from 2013 to 2017, 300,000 businesses were considered to be pass-through income entities and benefited from the tax exemption. the tax reform "encouraged tens of thousands of kansans to claim their wages and salaries as income from a business rather than from employment."