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Title:
Kansas offers incentives to lure people back to the plains
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Description:
The Great Plains have been losing population since the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. NewsHour travels to Kansas to find out about a state plan that offers incentives to attract new residents to Rural Opportunity Zones. Will deals on student loan reimbursement and state income taxes bring people to rural Kansas counties?
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Travelling this stretch of highway 36 in rural
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Northwest Kansas in the dead of winter, it's very quiet.
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This is the road that leads to the town of Phillipsburg.
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The population just over 2,500.
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There's only one set of stop lights, one movie theatre, and several restaurants.
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Amber and Patrick Patterson grew up here.
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"I mean, everyone knows everybody.
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You know, everybody helps out everybody. It's nice."
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The Pattersons were highschool sweethearts
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and they went to college in Hays Kansas.
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A city of about 20,000 people an hour away.
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Like most young people from around here
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they didn't think they'd be back
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given the lack of opportunities.
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"I'd say the job market is probably one of the things
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that made it the hardest to come back
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because a lot of the jobs around here are set
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people have been doing their job for a long time.
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We didn't think there'd be any available to come back."
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In fact jobs and people have
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been disappearing from rural Kansas
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and most of the Great Plains for
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the last 80 years.
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It started during the 1930's during
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the Dust Bowl and accelerated with
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the mechanization of farming the 1960's.
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Fewer workers were needed than ever before
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in farming and other industries.
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"I've been around rural Kansas all my life.
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Was raised in rural Kansas.
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I've seen a decline for 50 years."
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Sam Brownback is the republican governor of Kansas.
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He vowed to take action after the most
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recent census, in which most counties
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reported a loss to their population.
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Brownback's idea was to create something
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like a new homestead act.
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Much like the one that lured people
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to these rural areas in the late 19th
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century with the promise of free land.
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"I think there's something worth preserving.
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It's about knowing the person that
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grows the food that your eating.
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It's about forming a community.
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Well we already have that.
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It's Phillipsburg Kansas. It's Parker Kansas.
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You know not only the person, you know their
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parents and maybe their grandparents.
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Why destroy it? This is a beautiful community.
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We just need to give it some economic activity."
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His idea was to create what are called
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"rural opportunity zones" and in 2011
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the state legislature overwhelmingly approved the plan.
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The ROZ program works like this,
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If you're a college grad with student loan debt, you
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can get up to $15,000 over 5 years just to move
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to a designated rural county in Kansas
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that's experienced a loss in population.
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Those comming from outside of Kansas won't
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pay state income taxes.
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"There's an old western saying that if you'll wear out a pair of
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boots living here, you'll live here the rest of your life.
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In about 5 years you'd wear out a pair of boots,
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and I think we're going to have a great chance
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of getting people.
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And not only getting people. I think we'll have
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people comming home that have wanted to
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come back for some period of time."
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The help with their student loans is what brought
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the Pattersons back to Phillipsburg in 2012.
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Between the two of them they owed $46,000 after
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graduating from Fort Hays State University.
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"Without ROZ I honestly don't know if we would
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be here, because we were questioning it so much
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on whether we could make it work.
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But with our student loan payments,and rent payments, and..."
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"Yeah we felt like it was a gamble, you know to come
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back without it."
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"ROZ made it that much easier."
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Patrick started off working odd jobs.
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Until he landed a position at a credit union,
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and Amber found work in customer relations
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at a pharmacy in town.
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The state and participating counties split the cost of student
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loan reimbursement for people like the Pattersons.
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Last year the total cost of the ROZ program was $838,000
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"You've built a reputation as a conservative
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republican both in the senate and now as governor.
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So you're not known, exactly, for big goverment programs.
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Doesn't something like this fly in the face of
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the principles that you espouse?"
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"I'm a growth guy, and it's about creating opportunites
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for people, and they may decide to take them they may not.
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But it's about growth and creating those opportunities.
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That to me is very consistent with what i've tried to be about."
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But the governor admits that the plan is a gamble.
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There's no guarantee or requirement that people
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taking advantage of the ROZ program will
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stay in these rural parts.
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Take 27 year old Kellen Adams. He moved to the
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small town of Logan in Phillips county seven months
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ago from a bigger city in Kansas.
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Adams lives here with his girlfriend.
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He's reciving $3,000 a year for the next 5
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years from the state and county.
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But he told us even before he applied to the ROZ
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program he had accepted a job as principal of the town's
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only school, but ultimately he doesn't see
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himself staying here.
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"The reason why is I don't want to take my current
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superintendents job. He and I have kind of agreed
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it would probably be in our best interests if I
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pursue another position elsewhere."
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"So the opportunities are limited here?" "They are."
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Adams says he plans on moving elsewhere in Kansas.
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But others may leave the state.
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"You're offering people, you know, up to $15,000 to
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help them with their student debt.
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What if these people come into these areas and
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they're like "Oh, great opportunity, I was going to move
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here anyway, but let me just take advantage of this
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and then I'll leave the state."?"
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"You could have some of that taking place, and there
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proabably will be some of it.
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You could see where we were and say
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"Alright we can choose to do nothing."
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That's a legitamate policy choice.
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And we were 28th most populous sate in America in the 70's and
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we're 33rd now, headed to 35th if we don't break the trend line.
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But I don't know any team or business that hires a
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coach or a leader to manage slower decline.
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Just manage the decline comfortably.
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You bring them in to change things."
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So far more than 650 people are enrolled in the
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program, 36 of whom are living in Phillips county.
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Which includes the towns of Phillipsburg and Logan.
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But some question the long term impact of an
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initiative like this.
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"My assesments would be that this may help a few
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people or a few communities in a very small way,
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but then it will not turn back the population."
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Laszlo Kulcsar is a sociologist at Kansas State
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University who specializes in rural population trends.
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He says he doubts that young people will move to
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rural counties in large numbers because jobs are
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scarce, and because these areas lack conveniences
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that can be found in larger towns.
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He showed me the projections for Phillips county.
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"The population has been going down since the 1900
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census, but according to the projections of the census
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bureau to 2030 we are going to see
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the same population decline."
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"When you speak to people who are involved in this
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initiative they say, you know
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"We've had people move back here. They're putting
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down roots. They're starting families. They're
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opening buisness here and there."
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I mean isn't that worth something?"
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"It is worth something. It is very important for a place
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to show some sign of vitality.
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So they're pleased to show others that this is not
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a place that's going to go away anytime soon.
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And really it does not work as much for others who
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may move there. But it does work on people who are
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thinking of moving away. So in that sense that
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may help retain the population that is still there."
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For Kellen Adams his desision to eventually leave is
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based squarely on where the jobs are.
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"It has nothing to do with Logan, or the school or
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anything else, but I am looking for a position,
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you know, that would be obviously in the best
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interests of my family.
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And I have pretty big dreams and goals and so, I want
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to be able to achieve those."
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The Pattersons on the other hand have long
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term plans to stay put.
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The sucess of the ROZ program will likely hinge on bringing more people like them to rural Kansas.
