Rural communities and the challenges they face were a main focus of Gov. Laura Kelly’s State of the State address Wednesday night.

Kelly noted that Kansas, at its heart, is a small-town state.

“That’s not to say our more urban centers aren’t important – of course they are. But in so many ways, they depend upon our rural areas,” Kelly said. “They depend upon the crops grown in western Kansas, the energy produced in central Kansas, the tourism on hunting grounds in southeast Kansas.”

Her administration will have rural communities at its focal point by creating the Office of Rural Prosperity and reviving the Main Street Program to rebuild small towns.

A major challenge for rural communities is health care. Rural hospitals are not doing well and, in the past decade, eight have closed, she said. About 60 are in jeopardy. Hospitals are being forced to raise costs and lay off essential workers, Kelly said.

Kelly said her proposition for the Cutting Healthcare Costs for All Kansans Act will help with these issues and will be introduced to both chambers next week.

“Health care coverage for 150,000 Kansans. Cost savings for most everyone. We

protect our rural hospitals. And Kansas taxpayers pay nothing extra?” Kelly said. “That’s a deal just about anyone would take.”

Rural public schools were also highlighted. Kelly said she will not allow diversion of public school dollars to private schools or stripping rural schools of money they need.

This means not waiting until kindergarten to start kids on a path of success, Kelly said. Kelly will propose the largest single-year investment ever made in the state’s early childhood system on Thursday.

The money will help with the state’s child care shortage. About 6,800 child care slots have been added between May 2022 and Aug. 2023, she said. Providing tax credits has also made this easier.

Making it easier to set up shop as a day care system is also her priority, and Kelly announced the creation of the Office of Early Childhood to put all the services under one roof.

Kelly also noted Kansas attracted more business investment per capita than any other state in the country.

The state also passed $1 billion in tax cuts for families and a bipartisan food tax cut.

“It starts by doing what we should have done in the first place: Completely eliminate the grocery tax on food. No waiting until 2025 – we owe it to Kansans to do it now,” she said.

Prioritizing senior citizens as they enter retirement is also a priority for her administration. Kelly announced she will propose a complete elimination of sales tax on Social Security.

As another way to grow populations in rural areas, Kelly is calling for legislation to raise the residential statewide property tax exemption from $42,000 to $100,000. This will wipe most or all of the state property tax for 370,000 families.

The proposal will also create a back-to-school sales tax holiday.

Kelly also noted the water crisis, saying it threatens the viability of the agriculture industry and the entire community. Western parts of Kansas are seeing wells dry up, and others have only a couple of decades to go, she said.

By investing $35 million each year for the next five years, Kelly said she is committing to deal with these issues and resolving the crisis during the rest of her term.

Kelly’s budget proposal Thursday will fully fund the State Water Plan for the third year in a row and provide funding for rural towns to update water systems.

“I’ve spent a lot of time tonight talking about rural Kansas, asking big questions about its future,” Kelly said. “We need to take those challenges head-on, not just because it’s a good thing to do for individual rural communities, but because without those rural communities, we lose who we are as a state.”

Parts of rural Kansas are growing eight times faster than the national average, yet they are sometimes discussed as if they are doomed to shrink, she said.

“Here’s my message tonight: Step up for rural Kansas. Step up. This must be a priority — when rural Kansas is strong, then Kansas is strong,” Kelly said.

Earlier in the speech, Kelly discussed the sustained success over the last five years in balancing budgets, fully funding schools and landing the largest economic development project in the history of the state, Panasonic. Kelly said these successes did not come without mistakes, like the new state license plate.

Kelly closed her speech encouraging Kansans to remember the words of TV character Ted Lasso, who said, “You know what the happiest animal on earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory. So be a goldfish.”

“Let’s, all of us, be goldfish – and not let the divisions of the past prevent us from doing right by Kansans for their future,” Kelly said.

In a pre-recorded response, Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, said many of today’s leaders, like President Joe Biden, are spending tax dollars to unnecessarily grow the government, with no focus on results or financial burdens on future children.

“Many of Governor Kelly’s proposals mirror Joe Biden’s extreme approach — spending more rather than cutting taxes for our families, all while chipping away at freedom, personal responsibility and public safety,” he said.

Hawkins said Kelly wants billions in new state and federal spending to increase welfare for able-bodied, working-age people in the form of Medicaid expansion, and to create a new state agency to put government in the middle of child care, after vetoing a reform bill last year to cut government red tape and give parents more child care options. 

Hawkins also said Kelly vetoed a bill to ban human smuggling in Kansas, despite Biden’s border security that makes families less safe.

Hawkins said he feels her agenda and actions have departed from her promise to remain in the middle.

Kansans deserve relief from inflation by cutting taxes, not bigger government, he said. To create lasting solutions to vulnerable populations, Republicans favor higher medical reimbursement rates, mental health support, eliminating waitlists for those with disabilities and increased access to health care clinics.

He said more action needs to be taken to rein in energy costs when inflation is raising family costs.

His statement also they are putting people above politics to improve services from the state, like public schools and highways while limiting further government intrusion into citizen lives.

Neither he nor Kelly took questions from the media following the State of the State.

Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]

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