Kansas Governor Sam Brownback is on the campaign trail after last week’s primary election victory. He visited Wichita on Tuesday afternoon to announce ideas for his potential second term.
Governor Brownback took his turn to speak on the campus of the Wichita Area Technical College - Democratic Candidate Paul Davis campaigned there in late June.
Joined by Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer, Brownback outlined his plan to create 100,000 private sector jobs in Kansas. He says it starts with limited taxes on small businesses.
“That’s the key piece of it, is getting that tax and regulatory climate for small business better, and we’re best in the nation on tax climate for small business now,” Brownback says.
Brownback would like to implement “urban opportunity zones” in cities like Wichita. They would be modeled after the Rural Opportunity Zones already in place, which entice out-of-state businesses to come to Kansas through incentives.
“No income taxes for five years, help paying off up to $15,000 of student loans. We’ll look at concepts like that as we design [urban opportunity zones], I really want us to get more economic activity into our urban areas,” Brownback says.
Brownback added that local efforts, like Wichita State University’s upcoming Innovation University and the training available at Wichita Area Technical College are also vital to job creation.