The Legislative Agenda of the Wichita Metro Chamber this year is to keep Kansas competitive and business friendly. With the addition of our new lobbyist, former representative Jason Watkins, we intend to aggressively pursue legislative priorities that benefit our members. We all understand the critical budget situation our state faces and we also understand that many policymakers in Topeka are looking to raise taxes. We know that raising taxes will not benefit our business members, so our first priority for 2010 is our belief that we must hold the line on taxes. We want the Wichita metro region and Kansas to be competitive and business friendly and we can’t do that with increased taxes. The elimination of certain tax exemptions and credits would in effect be a tax increase. At this time, our businesses cannot afford any increase in taxes -- layoffs, earnings and state tax receipts certainly reflect this truth.

Second, we are in support of the Unified Legislative Agenda – as usual, it includes issues critical for our region. A couple of issues included are continued funding for NIAR, NCAT and Affordable Airfares. NIAR and NCAT are critical to our aerospace industry – a huge resource for our state. Despite layoffs, the aviation manufacturing cluster still employs thousands of Kansans and still contributes over 20% to the State General Fund. Affordable air service to Wichita is absolutely essential to all business operations. Without affordable air service we lose not just large employers, but we also lose the up and coming high growth employers that will sustain our future. The Affordable airfares program has provided a $105 million return on investment over the past four years to the State General Fund. During this time, the state has invested $20 million and for every dollar invested the state receives $5.25 back.

Finally, we want to ensure that our region receives equitable funding for economic development projects. The Chamber, Visioneering Wichita and REAP (Regional Economic Area Partnership) have provided a brief Economic Development Report for our south central Kansas legislative delegation. There is a huge disparity in what South Central Kansas contributes and receives for economic development projects compared to other regions in the state. The Chamber intends to work together with our legislators to address and remedy this problem.