TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback promised on Friday that his state would scale back efforts to lure jobs away from the Missouri side of the Kansas City area if Missouri’s legislators weaken a law they approved in 2014 to end the business border raiding.
Brownback directed his commerce secretary to reduce the use of a tax incentive program aimed at encouraging companies to move existing jobs within the metropolitan area. Brownback said his directive would become effective when Missouri changes its law.
However, Missouri lawmakers are scheduled to end their annual legislative session on May 13, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether they would take up Brownback’s proposal. Existing Missouri law offers a truce in the business-poaching border fight if Kansas agrees to the law’s terms by Aug. 28.
Business leaders in the area have advocated a truce for years, and officials in both states have acknowledged they would be better off improving the region’s economy rather than moving existing jobs back and forth across the border.
“Our focus should be on creating new jobs that help our states and the region grow,†Brownback said in a statement.
The mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, said he’s pleased Brownback “has decided to be more strategic.†Mayor Sly James released a statement calling the Kansas governor’s proposal “a step in the right direction.â€
“Moving jobs across state lines isn’t economic development,†James said. “It’s score keeping, and we can do better than that.â€
Under Missouri law, the Missouri Department of Economic Development determines whether a Kansas policy triggers a moratorium on cross-border raiding.
“While we are still reviewing the details of the proposal, it does not meet the terms of the law enacted in 2014,†department spokeswoman Amy Susan said in an email Friday.
Brownback’s plan focuses on Kansas’ PEAK program. It allows businesses to keep state income taxes normally withheld from employees’ paychecks if they create at least five new jobs over a two-year period.
Under the directive announced Friday, the PEAK program could not be used to bring existing jobs from five border counties in Missouri to four counties in Kansas, unless they committed to investing at least $10 million on a new building. Companies could also get financial aid if they moved and created new jobs in Kansas.
In barring cross-border incentives, the Missouri law doesn’t make any distinctions between new and existing jobs, and it contains no exceptions for new buildings.
Brownback’s proposal and the Missouri law also differ on which counties would be affected. Both would apply to businesses in Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri, and Douglas, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. But the Kansas proposal adds Ray County to the list of affected Missouri counties and Leavenworth County to the list of affected Kansas counties. The Missouri law applies to Miami County in Kansas, rather than Leavenworth County.