By WINK HARTMAN
We’re seeing some states around the county raising taxes, something President Biden is now looking to do in Washington.
At the same time, we’re seeing Republican leadership here in Kansas looking to return money to the wallets of hard-working Kansas by passing tax cuts. Yes, Republicans believe that your hard-earned money is your money, not the money for Topeka bureaucrats.
Kansas needs to take advantage of a tax environment that grows business and let the rest of the country know that we are open for business and that we are creating the environment that will value your wallet and the wallets of your employees. We need to start going to states that are raising taxes and meet with CEOs and business leaders and pitch why they need to relocate to our state.
We should not let the leadership our we are seeing from our Legislature go to waste, we should use it to grab businesses for overtaxed and overregulated states like New York and California and bring them here to Kansas. This is not uncommon, other governors and lieutenant governors from around the country have routinely gone out and marketed their states, including tax environments to bring more business to the state.
Let’s look at New York. Every day it seems there are reports of state legislative Democrats pushing higher and higher taxes on residents. At the same time there is no one to push back on them. Pretty soon they’ll make the state too expensive to live in.
California has become one of the most over taxed and over regulated states and every year, another ballot referendum makes it harder to cut any tax or regulation. Why would business want to stay there?
This is where Kansas comes in. We have a great quality of life across our state. We have great schools, great communities, no traffic, an affordable cost of living and many things to do. We are the perfect place to relocate your business, especially when you see that we value your money. Now we need a state government that is hyper focused on selling this low tax, great quality of life environment to the nation.
How have other states brought top notch business in? They have used the state’s top leaders to meet with CEOs to recruit business. They travel the state and the world talking about how their state is the right economic environment for new business. As Kansas sees business leave due to the transformation of the aviation sector we need this leadership.
This type of business recruitment, combined with a smart tax and regulatory environment pays off. Oklahoma landed new aviation jobs due to the right tax environment and leadership from the former governor. Florida’s former lieutenant governor may have just lived on Wall Street with constant meetings to sell her state to CEOs as the best location for Wall Street South.
Large companies want to know why they should move their employees to a state. They want lower taxes and they want a good quality of life. Above all they want to hear this from top leaders, not middle managers at the Commerce Department.
Kansas can get that tax environment, now we need the leadership at the top.
Wink Hartman is the CEO of the Hartman Group of Companies in Wichita and the 2018 Republican nominee for lieutenant governor.