Update: The state needs money, and half the state needs more people in it. On Monday, the governor signed a bill into law to address both those problems.
In this town, boys still skateboard on the sidewalks, and main street still has traffic. Not all rural Kansas towns have that anymore. "We're losing population, we're losing our children," said Jane Wallace.
Which is why Kingman County (population 7,858) is one of 50 Kansas counties in the Rural Opportunity Zones. Governor Sam Brownback signed the bill Monday, giving a five-year state income tax break to out-of-staters who move to any of those counties, and federal student loan repayments of up to $15,000.
Business owner Jon Wollen moved to Kingman to raise his family. His State Farm Insurance office sits on Main Street, directly across from the City Hall. "When my wife and I moved here about 15 years ago, there were about 8 homes for sale," he explained. "Now, that would be over 100."
But his children, like many others, moved away. "One's in Chicago, one's in Flagstaff, and one's at KU," he listed. "So economic opportunity, and speaking to young people about the opportunities we have in rural Kansas, yeah, I'm excited about this bill, and this opportunity."
In the past 10 years, Kingman county's population has dropped almost 10%. And at the same time, local leaders passed incentives to bring people and jobs to the area. The city has a 20,000 square foot building free to anyone who will bring 9 jobs to the town. Another offers major financial help for people to build spec homes. No one has taken advantage of them.
"We're hoping this other tool will help bring those all together," explained Wallace, who is the director of the Kingman County Economic Development Council.
Incentives packages attract new residents, which doesn't always sit well with current residents. Though Wallace sees it differently. "If people come back, it broadens our tax base, they buy our homes, they work in our factories and our retail businesses, they put their kids in our schools. So it does help us." It helps if people move here.
Here are the 50 Kansas Counties that fall under the Rural Opportunity Zones:
Barber, Chautauqua, Cheyenne, Clark, Cloud, Comanche, Decatur, Edwards, Elk, Gove, Graham, Greeley, Greenwood, Hamilton, Harper, Hodgeman, Jewell, Kearny, Kingman, Kiowa, Lane, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Mitchell, Morton, Ness, Norton, Osborne, Pawnee, Phillips, Pratt, Rawlins, Republic, Rooks, Rush, Russell, Scott, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Stafford, Stanton, Thomas, Trego, Wallace, Washington, Wichita, Wilson and Woodson.
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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback puts pen to paper, signing a bill designed to attract more people to rural Kansas.The Governor made stops across the state Monday signing the bill designating 50 counties as "Rural Opportunity Zones". All 50 counties have seen population loss over the past year, most of them in the double digits.
Under the bill, people moving to the zones from out of state will not have to pay state income tax for five years. There is also an incentive for college students. Graduates who move to one of the 50 counties could get reimbursement for as much as $15,000 in student loans.
In addition to attracting more people to rural areas, the Governor says he also hopes it attracts more professionals to those areas.
"Doctors, dentists, physical therapists, engineers are hard to attract to rural areas. Here, with no income tax for five years, helping buy down student loans, makes that more attractive to professionals". said Gov. Brownback.
The Kansas Department of Commerce will be in charge of promoting the program. The law goes into effect July 1st, 2011.
