Mayoral candidates discuss how they’d like to see Wichita grow jobs

When Wichitans soundly rejected a proposed 1-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax last fall, the part that would have gone toward a jobs “war chest” was at the center of the debate.

Of the $400 million sales tax initiative, about 4 percent – or $16 million – would have gone toward traditional incentives to offset business costs for moving or expanding.

City officials had one goal: Create 20,000 jobs in the next five to seven years to replace the net 20,000 jobs lost in the recession, mostly in aviation.

As the rest of the country recovers from the recession, Wichita still lags in job recovery.

The next mayor will have to find a way to help the city recover while battling an aging infrastructure and gaining lost public trust after some failed economic development deals.

City Manager Robert Layton said last fall that the city has turned over a new leaf in its leadership and in its approach to incentives. He cited less direct investment in developers and more of a focus on investment in public spaces, particularly with parking lots and the tax increment financing district for Union Station downtown.

“I can’t control what happened in the past. I can control what happens going forward. I’d like to think we’re much tighter,” he said in an interview then.

Where the mayoral candidates stand on incentives and growing Wichita jobs

As Wichitans prepare to vote March 3 to narrow a field of 10 candidates for mayor to two, The Eagle asked those candidates how the city should attract jobs. It also asked whether, and how, the city should use incentives to do so. Following is what they said.

First, some brief background: The city can offer several kinds of incentives for companies, including property tax breaks, sales tax exemptions, cash incentives like forgivable loans, infrastructure improvements and industrial revenue bonds, according to the Sedgwick County/City of Wichita Economic Development Policy. Industrial revenue bonds are issued by governments without any taxpayer liability; they provide financing for improvements at companies and often include tax breaks on the improvements.

Robert Culver

Culver, 43, is a metal worker at Tennison Bros.

Culver said he would like to change the way the city gives incentives, and he is more inclined to give property tax breaks to businesses.

“My proposal is we stop giving companies (money) to come to Wichita,” Culver said. “They can stay with a five-year no-property tax (agreement) or we give them land on the grounds they stay no less than 10 years in Wichita and employ no less than 10 Wichita citizens.

“Keep taxes low and stop giving companies $500,000 to $1 million to come and not holding them to being here.”

Sean Hatfield

Hatfield, 32, is an attorney for Maughan Law Group.

Hatfield said he doesn’t like cash handouts and forgivable loans for companies.

“Wichita would be better served with quality-of-life issues, low taxes and reduced red tape to draw in as many businesses as possible ... instead of the city picking winners and losers,” he said.

“To give handouts to companies that ultimately leave, like Boeing, I think is poor policy in particular for the long term. What we should focus on instead are infrastructure improvements and general quality-of-life improvements to promote.”

Hatfield said Wichita needs to “roll out the red carpet” to businesses instead of the “red tape.”

Dan Heflin

Heflin, 51, is a product engineer and owner of Nu-Ans Design and NoMar Self Storage.

Heflin proposes that the city create a new incentives program for anyone who does new development and construction.

He suggests a graduated property tax on new construction, with property taxes delayed up to five years.

“Anything over the old value would be delayed in taxing,” he said.

Frances Jackson

Jackson, 75, is the semi-retired executive director of Youth Development Services Inc.

Jackson said she didn’t philosophically disagree with the use of incentives for businesses, but she did not give specifics about how she thinks they should be spent.

She suggested the city work more with other groups to come up with a new way to approach incentives.

“They’re getting ready to open the innovation campus (at Wichita State), and we have the Kansas Leadership Center. With the wisdom behind those efforts and the ability to participate with those, we can find new and intriguing ways and let that process bring us to that answer,” she said.

“Incentives may be one of the things they come up with.”

Jeff Longwell

Longwell, 55, is the owner of Ad Astra Printing and has been the District 5 City Council member for the past eight years.

Incentives are a necessary resource for local government if used properly, Longwell said.

“We have to use traditional incentives,” he said. “I think cash incentives are a little offensive, (and I’m) not sure citizens in the area support the way they’re used now. We need to re-evaluate (it).”

Although the city has many options for incentives, it doesn’t have “deep pockets” to find the money if a big deal comes up that focuses on forgivable loans and cash incentives, he said.

Longwell thinks the city should work more with Wichita State’s innovation campus and use the new local Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth study, which has identified new “job clusters” that can diversify the economy.

“We’ve got to get the climate right to grow our jobs and diversify this economy. We have too many people out of work. We’ve got to change that. We’re not going to tax our way to prosperity, we’re not going to trim our way to prosperity, because we’ve already made a number of efficiencies in our government that have saved us millions of dollars. ... We have to change the way that the chamber is focusing on job growth.”

Focusing on quality-of-life issues, like the arts and parks, can also help encourage growth in Wichita, Longwell said.

Tony Rosales

Rosales, 38, is co-owner and operator of Twin Peaks restaurant in east Wichita.

Rosales said he thinks cities have to give some sort of incentive to companies in order to compete with other cities.

“Every city is going to do it. It’s the best way to market the city and attract jobs,” he said.

“Having a low crime rate, great infrastructure, lots of amenities and a low cost of living are all attractive to businesses.”

Tracy Stewart

Stewart, 38, is a banker at Bankers’ Bank of Kansas.

Stewart said he supports the use of incentives that aren’t designed to specifically go toward one company or one industry. That way, the Wichita economy can become more diversified, he said.

He supports incentives for “all companies who are creating jobs, and when they’re creating in one department and laying off in another department, they shouldn’t qualify, because they’re not creating additional jobs.”

Lavonta Williams

Williams, 65, is a retired educator and has been the District 1 City Council member for the past six years.

Wichita was one of the last cities to go into the recession and so it will be one of the last to come out of it, Williams said, adding that diversification is key to Wichita’s growth.

In order for Wichita to compete, it has to offer incentives like other cities, she said.

“We know that right now we could be on the verge of losing somebody because somebody else wants them to come. So what do we do? Do we just not put anything on paper? Do we just not do our best to say ‘This is what we can do?’

“If that incentive is going to be something that will provide us jobs ... I think it’s our job to look into that, to do the best we can to try to incentivize someone to come here.”

Williams said every company has a chance to receive incentives with the city’s current guidelines.

“If Joe wants to use it, Joe can use it. Joe goes to the economic department, and they sit down and they come up with numbers. It comes before the council, and if it creates jobs, if it’s a great return on investment, that’s what we’re going to look at. I truly believe that we have to have some type of incentive. Especially for the larger companies.”

The city should continue to work with Wichita State and its planned innovation campus as well as connect people interested in starting a business to available resources, she said.

Sam Williams

Williams, 63, is a retired executive from Sullivan Higdon & Sink, the state’s largest marketing firm.

Private business needs to drive economic development, Williams said.

“Does government have a role in helping economic development? Absolutely. Does providing forgivable loans, for example, is that really what’s keeping business and growing it? I don’t know the answer on that.”

He doesn’t like incentives, “because what you’re doing with those is making an assumption that you know better than anyone else the right way to invest.”

“In today’s world, we’ve become conditioned, if you’re a large enough company, to come to the state and to the city and whomever and ask for whatever incentives you can get. That is a reality. And how we play that game needs to change, and I think leadership can change that game.”

Williams doesn’t think the city currently has conversations with the CEOs of large companies about their expectations for incentives.

“I’d come in and say, ‘What’s really going on here? What are you really trying to do? You’ve got billions of dollars invested in this community, and you want me to believe, CEO to CEO... that you’re going to take your business out of this town if I (don’t) give you a tenth of what your investment is worth here? What’s going on? Help me understand what the real need is. If it’s just keeping score with the rest of the companies in the world, let’s talk about that. But let’s know what we’re doing and let’s structure something that will help you win and help the city of Wichita win also.’ ”

If elected, “I would be the CEO of a $600 million business,” Williams said.

Jennifer Winn

Winn, 44, is owner of Landscapes Inc. and ran against Gov. Sam Brownback in the Republican primary last fall.

Winn is not opposed to incentives overall.

“What I’m opposed to with the incentives is the fact that we seem to focus all of those incentives on big business, and we have virtually made it impossible for small business to use those incentives, and I want to change that,” Winn said.

“I want small businesses to be the focal point equally with the big corporations. That’s something we’ve neglected.”

She said the city should focus on developing a real water walk along the river and encourage small businesses to develop there as a part of growing jobs. She suggests using sales tax revenue (STAR) bonds to help with the development.

“I would like to focus more on our river,” Winn said. “We have a water walk, or what we call a water walk, that really isn’t a water walk. I have an idea for the river to actually cut in and implement canals and channels. Particular areas in mind. And we could encourage small business to develop there similar to San Antonio.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Mayoral candidates discuss how they’d like to see Wichita grow jobs."