Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117 published by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), supported by "The Wall Street Journal", supply-side economist Arthur Laffer, and anti-tax leader Grover Norquist. By 2017, state revenues had fallen by hundreds of millions of dollars causing spending on roads, bridges, and education to be slashed, but instead of boosting economic growth, growth in Kansas remained consistently below average. That year, the Republican Legislature of Kansas voted to roll back the cuts and after Brownback vetoed the repeal overrode his veto. As a conservative Republican Senator from Kansas, Brownback had been reelected by large margins in 1998 and 2004, and
Larry Laffer when Lowe sent a letter asking his permission for the publication of a program under the title "Laffer Utilities", a Larry spin-off which could potentially confuse the public due to the ambiguous title. Laffer asked his secretary if she knew about the games and she told him that she had played them for years, but never made a connection. Laffer gave the permission and also paid a visit to the Sierra studios. One of Larry's trademarks is his manner of introducing himself: "Hi, my name is Larry; Larry Laffer", a reference to James Bond's introduction style, "My name is Bond;