By Gwendolynne Larson
larson@emporiagazette.com
With a tip of the hat to the importance of private business to the Kansas economy, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius thanked members of the Kansas Cavalry on Tuesday night for volunteering their time to recruit new businesses and industries.
“The state doesn’t grow capital and jobs,” Sebelius told the group of nearly 300 people at Emporia State University’s Webb Lecture Hall, “you do in the private sector.”
The Kansas Cavalry is a volunteer group of business, education and economic professionals who work as ambassadors to draw companies to the state. Tuesday’s gathering was the 35th annual “encampment,” which coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Kansas Business Hall of Fame located at ESU.
“Business clearly is the backbone of the Kansas economy,” the governor told the group before reminding them of important legislative changes during her administration that helped draw businesses to the state.
Among them — the Economic Growth Act, that identified key industries that Kansas should work to recruit; elimination of property taxes on new business machinery; and lowering the corporate franchise tax.
Eliminating property taxes on new machinery helped General Motors save $12 million when it enhanced its Kansas City, Kan., manufacturing plant, Sebelius told the group.
“That made a huge difference when GM looked at what plants to close around the country,” she said.
The state also has emphasized retaining businesses and building a solid workforce.
“One of the questions I get asked,” she said, “is ‘Can I find the workers I’m going to need to run my business?’”
And exports play a key role in the Kansas economy.
“We’ve added 660 million additional dollars each year to the Kansas economy since 1999,” she said. “Last year was an all-time high of 10.25 billion dollars in exports.
“This is the third straight year Kansas has achieved an all-time high.”
Despite the legislative action that helped give Kansas a favorable business climate, Sebelius said Tuesday the state wouldn’t be successful without the cavalry members.
“You are volunteer leaders who step up and go on trade missions around the globe to convince businesses to locate in Kansas.”
In recognition, 15 cavalry members were honored Tuesday for trade missions they’d completed in the last year. The group included Emporia’s Kent Heermann, president of the Regional Development Center of East Central Kansas.
For 20 years, the annual encampment has coincided with the Kansas Business Hall of Fame induction of both a historic and contemporary figure who has made significant contributions to Kansas business. The new members inducted Tuesday were Fred Harvey, founder of the historic Harvey House restaurants, as the historical heritage award winner and Howard R. Fricke, former chief executive officer and chairman of Security Benefit, as the contemporary award winner.
The governor also presented the award of excellence to Crossland Construction Co. of Columbus and named Vortex Corp. of Salina as exporter of the year.
Crossland Construction provides general contracting services and is ranked among the top 400 general contracting companies in the country. Vortex supplies material handling valves to a global network of original equipment manufacturers of products ranging from Pringles potato chips to the solid rocket fuel used in space shuttles.
Sebelius herself picked up an award, earning the Silver Stirrup Award for Meritorious Service. The award is given if the Kansas Cavalry board believes someone has done something beyond the call of duty, according to Donald R. Landoll, commanding general of the cavalry. Sebelius is the fourth governor since 1974 to receive the award, joining Robert Docking, Robert Bennett, John Carlin and Bill Graves.
“I’ve never had a stirrup before all my very own,” the governor said. “I’ll treasure it.”
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Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on June 18, 2008 at 7:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shame on the Kansas Cavalry. They are like a bunch of teenagers with stars in their eyes. How can an economic development group of any kind give the governor an award after she personally blocked a $3,500,000,000.00 electrical generation project that came to us, asking for permits, no recruiting necessary? Or ran off a $10,000,000,000.00 oil refinery proposed for Pottawatomie County, which instead went to South Dakota because of the governor's business unfriendly attitude? She sold her soul to the liberals of the east and left coasts in order to be vice president. She cares nothing about us, other than what we can do to advance her political career.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on June 19, 2008 at 9:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Here is a cite to a Topeka Capital-Journal article in this morning's paper which reports that our governor has made numerous trips to Ohio to campaign for O'Bama. In fact, she will be campaigning there this weekend. The article mentions her aspirations to be vice president. The governor also refers to Kansas as "enemy territory" (republican state).
http://cjonline.com/stories/061908/sta_2...
Posted by wanderer (anonymous) on June 19, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is her campaigning for Obama a surprise? She supported him in the primaries, too, not least because he's a Democrat who has some Kansas roots. And she'd probably be a very effective campaigner in Ohio, since her father used to be governor there.
The article you cite does NOT mention her "aspirations to be vice president" beyond saying something like "Whether or not she is chosen as his No. 2." Moreover, it's the reporter who calls Kansas "enemy territory" in the article, not Sebelius.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on June 19, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Upon rereading the story, Wanderer is correct, it was the reporter that called Kansas "enemy territory".
Obviously, Wanderer, you are a Sebelius supporter, which is your right. I learned a long time ago that two reasonable people can look at a set of facts and come to opposite conclusions.
I fail to see, however, how any reasonable person cannot see exactly what the governor is doing here. She thrice vetoed a badly needed electrical generation plant which would have pumped in $3,500,000,000.00 into our economy with just construction, to say nothing of the longterm benefits, cheaper electricity, more taxes for schools and highways, employment and infrastructure for years to come. Since she did so based upon enviornmental standards that have never been adopted in Kansas or anywhere, and well beyond the federal standards, what other conclusion are we to draw except that this is her ploy for higher office? She is a typical opportunistic politician, and nothing more can be said for her. She has used us as she will the nation if she is given the chance.
Posted by emporialifer (anonymous) on June 19, 2008 at 11:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
So Sebelius realizes the importance of the private sector yet fails to back up her words with actions. The government sure makes it difficult for the private sector to hire good employees when government jobs are the ones with the best benefits, salaries, etc. Why? Because the government doesn't have to generate a profit, all they have to do is vote to raise taxes to get a raise or more vacation time or add more positions. I would love to see the government go to a private sector type model when it comes to that stuff and give people raises when they show ways to save money, cut costs, produce more, etc. If Sebelius really realizes how important the private sector is, maybe she should have given and paid for out of her own pocket (not the taxpayers) a day off from work like she gave all state employees. You know the world is screwed up big time when a job for the government is more appealing than one with a private business.
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