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
Arthur Laffer on the "Board of Scholars" of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Laffer was one of four economists who acted as advisors to Donald Trump's successful 2016 campaign for the presidency of the United States. Laffer was born in Youngstown, Ohio, the son of Marian Amelia "Molly" (née Betz), a homemaker and politician, and William Gillespie Laffer, a president of the Clevite Corporation. He was raised a Presbyterian, and graduated from University School high school in 1958. Laffer earned a B.A. in Economics from Yale University (1962) and an M.B.A. (1965) and a Ph.D. in Economics (1972) from Stanford University.