Forum focuses on jobs for Wichita

If Kansas wants more jobs, it may have to become more than “wheat and cattle and Dorothy” in the eyes of outsiders.

“When you start coming down to it, it’s actually image,” said Jeremy Hill, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, talking about attracting and retaining jobs.

Hill was one of several speakers Friday at a forum on the job development portion of the proposed 1-cent sales tax, which voters will decide on in November. The forum was hosted by the free-market think tank Kansas Policy Institute.

In the last six years, Wichita has lost 20,000 jobs – mostly in aerospace – and that has had a large impact on the local and state economy.

If passed, the sales tax would collect nearly $400 million over five years, including $250 million for a new water supply, $27.8 million for street maintenance and repair, $80 million for job development and $39.8 million for transit.

Perhaps the most contentious issue is the job development fund, which opponents have labeled as a “slush fund” for business.

City officials hope the job plan put forth as part of the sales tax question will bring 20,000 jobs to the city over the next five to seven years.

The job development plan proposed by the city would put $32 million toward infrastructure projects like railroad spurs, runway upgrades and sewers for Wichita State’s new innovation campus.

The plan would also put $32 million toward workforce training at local colleges. The last $16 million would go toward offsetting costs for companies that want to move to Wichita or expand here, which could include things like reimbursement for moving large equipment, architectural or engineering plans and investing in research at Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research.

Wichita has an excess labor supply at the same time that businesses are saying they can’t find employees, Hill said.

“There’s a mismatch of labor. We have people that were laid off that have different skills than what people are wanting to hire,” Hill said. “That’s a trend and an issue we have to think about in the community. How do we re-engage them?”

Part of that solution, said John Tomblin, vice president for research and technology at Wichita State and executive director of NIAR, is training workers for specific companies as an “incubator” at the university’s new innovation campus.

Speakers differed on their opinions of the effectiveness of incentives for companies.

Nathan Jensen, an associate professor at George Washington University, told the audience that Wichitans should seriously evaluate and create a way to measure whether the incentive dollars would actually bring jobs to Wichita.

He said incentives have pros and cons, but he doesn’t find them effective in many cases.

Jeffrey Finkle, a former Reagan appointee and current president and CEO of the International Economic Development Council, had a different stance.

“The transformation of Oklahoma City with taxpayer dollars is phenomenal,” and it has used incentives, Finkle said. He also pointed to the hundreds of communities in Texas that have done similar things to attract jobs.

“You don’t want to become a Detroit,” Finkle said, warning about the risk of not diversifying Wichita’s economy.

Although he would prefer incentives didn’t exist nationally, Finkle said other communities are going to continue to use the tools in their toolbox.

And if incentives are used strategically, he said, they are a smart investment to attract and retain firms and talent.

This story was originally published September 19, 2014 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Forum focuses on jobs for Wichita."