Kansas Office of Rural Prosperity Listening Sessions
Published
6/17/2019
Gov. Kelly has created the Office of Rural Prosperity that “is dedicated to improving life in rural Kansas” with goals of developing rural housing, revitalizing Main Street corridors, investing in rural infrastructure, supporting rural hospitals and medical professional recruitment, making state government work for rural Kansas, incentivizing active tourism and supporting agribusiness.
Listening sessions
The Governor’s office is hosting listening sessions across the state June through August. For dates and locations, go here. Farm Bureau members of Kansas are encouraged to attend and be part of the discussion.
KFB policy priorities
Below are a list of KFB policy priorities. For a printable list, click here.
- We support the creation of an equitable tax system that is not detrimental to production agriculture. We support a tax, fee and revenue mix that does not increase the dependency on property tax. Reductions in Kansas personal income tax, sales tax, should not increase reliance on property tax as a revenue source for state or local governments. [AT-3]
- We support every home, business and agricultural operation in Kansas having access to a high-speed communication infrastructure at a reasonable cost. [TU-14]
- We support the Kansas Water Appropriation Act. State laws must provide for the protection, development and administration of water rights to protect individual ground and surface water right holders consistent with their priority. When water shortages occur in any area of the state, water rights should be administered in strict adherence to their priority as set forth in the Kansas Water Appropriation Act. [WA-5]
- We support state authority to regulate water quality under the federal Clean Water Act. [WA-7]
- We support the following measures that will assist in preserving health care delivery to rural Kansans:
- Encouraging students to enter health care professions and developing programs which encourage and incentivize practice in rural areas;
- Promoting the specialty of family medicine and practice in rural areas.
- We support free market efforts to make insurance coverage more available to all Kansans without expanding government programs or increasing expenses. [PHW-2]
- Special programs should be designed at federal and state levels to specifically deal with credit and financing issues of young farmers and ranchers who are entering or expanding agricultural operations. [AG-6]
- We support agritourism as a tool for local and regional economic development. [AG-8]
- Agriculture businesses established in Kansas must be economically viable, good community partners and responsible stewards of the land. [AG-14]
- We continue to give our strong support to agricultural education and leadership training programs, which prepare youth for careers in agriculture and agri-business. [ED-1]
- The Kansas Department of Transportation should ensure that investments in highway construction result in roadways that are high quality, long lasting and require minimal maintenance. [TU-7]