While most Kansans were looking forward to the three-day Labor Day weekend, a small group of legislators last week in a quiet committee room on the 5th floor of the Statehouse moved forward with a plan to spend $5 million to bring nearly 2,500 new jobs to Kansas.
Those new jobs, and new buildings and such – and the taxes that will be paid by those businesses and their workers – are what fuel the Kansas economy that makes us all more prosperous.
That meeting? It was the Legislative Budget Committee, and it approved and will now urge the Legislative Coordinating Council to send $5 million in coronavirus recovery funds to the Kansas Department of Commerce to close deals that will bring $243 million of investment and construction and those jobs which are expected to pay an average of $48,000 a year to the state.
Not a bad investment, is it?
Kansas Secretary of Commerce David Toland told the panel that his agency is about out of money in its Job Creation Fund, which it uses to lure businesses and their positive effect on the Kansas economy to the state.
Most of us don’t think about the Department of Commerce much, and there are no support groups or GoFundMe accounts that provide the agency with the last few bucks, the little incidental costs to locating a business in Kansas, that close deals for new development and jobs.
That $5 million will help the state close those deals and provide jobs across the state. Mostly in central and eastern Kansas, though one deal that is in the air is in western Kansas. Nope, Toland isn’t naming those close-to-done deals for fear of competition from other states which also want new jobs and businesses, but they are getting close.
And, Toland said, Commerce access to that closing-the-deal money adds to the near sudden increase in interest by many companies to move facilities to Kansas, partly for its center-of-the-nation location and highway system which make the state a convenient and economic place to put down a plant or warehouse for national marketing.
Oh, and there are also those smart, reliable, and dedicated workers – that would be Kansans – who populate the state.
Now, the Legislature has been a little protective of the money it has appropriated to itself for response to wide ranges of COVID-19 effects, such as assistance to existing businesses struck by the pandemic, job losses, and the need to generate more jobs for Kansans.
Seem like a good use for the legislature’s rebuild-the-economy and protect Kansans money, doesn’t it?
Toland said that Kansas now has eco-devo prospectors on both coasts to urge businesses to relocate here. The nature of American commerce has changed through the pandemic with more on-line shopping that can be served from relatively low-cost mid-continent facilities. It’s the change from being a “fly over” state to one that has economic advantages for a wide range of companies for which Kansas can be a money-saver and profit-boosting place to put a business.
It’s just that little Job Creation Fund that can provide the services or few additional bucks to close those deals, which is where Toland and most Kansans want us to be.
Look for the Legislature to OK the money, and then we’ll see just what new businesses are coming to the state…and whether it means the kids can find work close to home instead of moving to the coast…
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