Kansas, Missouri battle over companies

[knucklehead]

Kansas wants to divert water from the Missouri river for irrigation in western kansas.

Western Kansas is dying but wants to take down the missouri river with it. All to benefit a handful of large farmers who are already heavily subsidized. Political corruption never sleeps.


http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/b ... r-war.html

[longviewmo]

"Political corruption"?

[knucklehead]

Perhaps a bit of an overstatment.

What is really happening is Kansas politicians are pandering to large western Kansas farmers who have a concentrated vested interest in the diversion of water from the Missouri river for a low priority use (agricultural irrigation is a not a high priority use, especially when you consider the costs of diverting the water). The politics of water in Arizona and California illustrate that this is plain special interest politics.

Special interest politics is legal but it is still corruption in the sense that politicans pander to the special interests to garner political support from the local establishment (and to prevent the support from going to people running against them). I call it corruption when local politicans sell out the public interest to improve their re-election chances by pandering to local concentrated interests.

Really not much different than my old congressman, Ike Skelton, championing military spending because Whiteman AFB and Fort Leonard Wood were in his district. Is that corruption? I guess pork barrel politics may be a less loaded term.

[KCMax]

State's corporate incentive deals lack transparency

“Kansas is not great about putting its subsidy data online, at the state level at least,” Phillip Mattera, research director of the Corporate Research Project in Washington, D.C., said in a phone interview.

Kansas is one of five states, along with Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho and Mississippi, that doesn’t put any corporate subsidy recipient data on the web, Mattera said.

He knows this because he has spent the last few years compiling a massive database of subsidy recipients in each state for Good Jobs First, an organization that bills itself as “the nation’s leading resource for grass-roots groups and public officials seeking to make economic development subsidies more accountable and effective.”

[KCMax]

'Border War' obscures PEAK data

But no one, from the auditors to the department to the Docking Institute, seems to have accurate data on how many of those jobs were already held by residents of Kansas or are now held by residents of Missouri who stayed in their homes and commute across the state line. Most of the companies declined to talk about PEAK when contacted by The Topeka Capital-Journal in recent months.

Thirty of the 94 PEAK companies — and more than one-fourth of the associated jobs — examined by the audit hopped over the border from Missouri, raising questions about whether the program is fulfilling its mission.

[KCMax]

Speaking of corporate handouts, the Missour Legislature is reconvening this week to debate a massive incentive package aimed at Boeing.

Senate committee passes Boeing incentive bill; heads to full Senate Wednesday

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Nixon’s administration announced that if Missouri were to get the full project — estimated to create 8,000 jobs — it could cost the state as much as $1.7 billion over 23 years. According to Nixon’s figures, if Missouri were receive a smaller part of the project — like the new composite wing — it could create some 2,000 jobs and could cost the state $435 million in incentives by 2040. On the high end, that could mean $2.9 billion in additional revenue for the state.

If you're going to do incentives, it makes sense to bring them from out-of-the region like this. But this is a MASSIVE subsidy. And ask Wichita how loyal Boeing is once the well of incentives dries up.

[KCMax]

Kansas and Missouri battle for Boeing with incentives

[Eon Blue]

So what we want here is for Kansas to win this contract for Wichita and deplete their ability to poach from KCMO, right? An addition of a few thousand union jobs to Kansas could help moderate the political discourse there, as well.

[Highlander]

So what we want here is for Kansas to win this contract for Wichita and deplete their ability to poach from KCMO, right? An addition of a few thousand union jobs to Kansas could help moderate the political discourse there, as well.

I'd much rather see Kansas get this than Missouri but for different reasons. St Louis is a competitor city with its own hinterlands despite being in the same state as KC. Wichita is well within the KC sphere of influence. Their populace comes to KC to spend money, follows KC sporting teams, and even flies out of KCI regularly. Wichita getting it will have a bigger and more positive impact on the KC metro.

[longviewmo]

Wonder if they'll just reuse the old Boeing space in Wichita if Kansas gets it?

[earthling]

One one hand, would rather see STL get it. STL has below avg per cap GDP (below Detroit) and employment is at level of around 10 years ago yet mostly carries MO. OTOH, Wichita is stuck in stagnation and could use this boost. STL more relative eco momentum than Wichita in last few years.

Edit - May not matter as it sounds like they desire/require a seaport and will just use all the offers as leverage to get a better deal where they are.

[warwickland]

So what we want here is for Kansas to win this contract for Wichita and deplete their ability to poach from KCMO, right? An addition of a few thousand union jobs to Kansas could help moderate the political discourse there, as well.

I'd much rather see Kansas get this than Missouri but for different reasons. St Louis is a competitor city with its own hinterlands despite being in the same state as KC. Wichita is well within the KC sphere of influence. Their populace comes to KC to spend money, follows KC sporting teams, and even flies out of KCI regularly. Wichita getting it will have a bigger and more positive impact on the KC metro.

i have a hard time believing that wichita has a weightier economic interaction with kansas city than st. louis. i see lots of kc dealer names and jo plates over here on weekends and the reverse is true on 70 heading east out of kc on sundays. maybe i'm wrong but i didnt realize tha wichita was almost three hours away.

[warwickland]

besides st louis doesnt pull food out of kcmos mouth. thats state revenue thats leaving our "pocket" too. lets get some jobs back into missouri.

[KCMax]

Missouri bill takes step toward eco-devo Border War truce

On Wednesday, State Sen. Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City, filed Senate Bill No. 635 [PDF], which would take the key ammunition used in courting business across the state line — tax breaks and direct financial support — away from Missouri legislators.

If the bill is enacted, jobs relocated from a Kansas border county — Johnson, Wyandotte, Miami or Douglas counties — to a Missouri border county will not qualify for state tax credits, retention of state withholding taxes or any direct state funding.

That bill will be considered during the General Assembly's coming legislative session, which begins in January.

[swid]

Today's Omaha World-Herald has two articles and an editorial about an economic development partnership created by several Nebraska and Iowa agencies that is being promoted by the governors of both states:

Nebraska, Iowa reach across state line to cooperate on economic development
Heineman, Branstad eager for teamwork in building Omaha-Bluffs regional economy
World-Herald editorial: Regional cooperation makes sense

Not surprisingly, the Kansas/Missouri race to the bottom strategy is explicitly mentioned as something both states are attempting to avoid in this partnership.

[KCMax]

Business leader says border war bill may be unconstitutional

"Can a law be enacted that denies a tax benefit to some out-of-state employers while giving tax breaks to competitors moving from other areas?" McCarty wrote. "Wouldn't such a law be discriminatory?"

To answer his own questions, McCarty turned to the AIM Tax Committee, which includes more than 100 Missouri tax lawyers and accountants. Many of those committee members "believe such a law would have constitutional problems and could be voided by the courts," McCarty wrote, citing concerns related to the commerce and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

Gosh, that would be terrible if state governments were giving preferential tax treatment to some companies, but not others.

[KCMax]

Grantham University will move HQ, 350 jobs to Lenexa

Grantham University is transferring its administrative headquarters from Zona Rosa in Kansas City to space recently vacated by Freightquote in Lenexa’s Southlake Technology Park.

[KCMax]

KC-area leaders advise Kansas on border war truce

Kansas currently grants incentives at the discretion of a few officials in the Brownback administration. George said that gives Kansas the ability to craft a truce that would allow metro-area incentives in situations where withholding them would prompt a company to move to another state besides Missouri.

Silvey's bill doesn't require Missouri to change its practice of granting incentives automatically, based on criteria established by legislation, rather than at the Nixon administration's discretion. Some Republicans in the General Assembly don't want to give Nixon, a Democrat, more control over the incentive process.

But without discretionary incentives in Missouri, George said, a truce amenable to Kansas leaders might be more difficult to achieve.

[KCMax]

KANSAS ON KANSAS WAR!

CenturyLink to move from Overland Park to New Century

[shinatoo]

In general Houston's sprawl extends about 30 miles out from the city center (Katy, Woodland). New century is 30 miles from Downtown KC.