Gov. Kathleen Sebelius last week announced the creation of a new division focused on stimulating rural growth has been added within the Kansas Department of Commerce.           

"The challenges facing our rural areas range from a need to recruit and retain more good jobs and provide quality, affordable housing, to difficulties in maintaining basic services," Sebelius said in a statement released Sept. 4. "Many Kansans are proud to make their homes in rural communities, and the new Division of Rural Development will enhance our commitment to restore vitality to America's heartland."

The announcement came only two days after the announcement by ITC Great Plains that it planned to build two of the three sections that will comprise the proposed 180-mile-long Kansas V-Plan transmission project.

The transmission lines will be used by Mid-Kansas Electric Co and Sunflower Electric Power Corp.

The two events highlight the two approaches to rural development being discussed across the Midwest. The question: Should the state step in where private enterprise is already at work?

According to Joe Monaco, public information officer for the Kansas Department of Commerce, the Division of Rural Development is a merging of three preexisting groups including the Ag Marketing Division, Community Development Division and the Office of Rural Opportunity.

Monaco said the decision to merge the three groups was based on an effort to create greater efficiency and functioning within the existing entities and to provide resources when the private sector can't do the job.  The merged group is currently sharing the same funding and staff from the three Department of Commerce units.

“This is an internal reorganization that is laying the groundwork for better services,” Monaco told KansasLiberty.com. “There is a possibility of more staff and more services being added in the future. The potential to grow could be added every legislative session as you never know what will come out of the session and they may mandate we need to put more resources into it.”

Monaco said rural development could benefit more from a government operated group than a private group because of the various state relationships and connections the government already has established.

“Sometimes there just isn’t the resources for a private group to work in a rural community and with having a state-sponsored group providing rural development there is the benefit of us being held accountable with government and with the legislature guiding, directing us and telling us where to move our resources to make sure rural Kansas gets its due,” Monaco said.  

Steve Stanek, research fellow at the Heartland Institute, said the connections governments have within states and communities is precisely why it is unfair and illogical for the government to get involved with community and economic development.

“We need to get rid of these government agencies, and instead of creating them, states should be abolishing them,” Stanek said. “I think the more involved the government becomes in these types of activities the more open they come to corruption and it increases the temptation for pay-to-play politics.”

Stanek said he generally agreed government growth and size should be limited.

“Businesses are trying to cut costs to keep things in line, families and the recently unemployed are doing the same thing, yet these businesses and individuals have to keep paying for the government and the government keeps growing regardless of what the economy is doing.”

Private groups, such as the Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, have been working to improve community development without the assistance of state dollars.         

As an example, backers point to the announcement of a Kansas transmission line capable of carrying 765,000 volts of electricity when Sunflower Electric and Mid-Kansas Electric Company reached an agreement with ITC Great Plains on how to proceed with building responsibilities.

According to a statement released last Monday, ITC Great Plains will build two of the three sections that will make up the transmission project which will run transmission lines from Spearville, Kan., to Comanche County, Kan, and from Comanche County, to Medicine Lodge, Kan.

Westar Energy will be given the choice in whether or not they want to build the third section of the V-Plan, which will run from Medicine Lodge to Sedgwick County, Kan. If Westar declines, ITC Great Plains will build that additional section as well.

“In choosing to work with ITC Great Plains, we have reached an agreement that will best benefit consumers in our transmission territories. Mid-Kansas, a generation and transmission cooperative, brings a local focus to this agreement, and ITC Great Plains, a transmission-only utility, brings a regional focus,” Cinthia Hertel, spokesperson for Sunflower Electric, told KansasLiberty.com.

“Our goal is to deliver reliable energy at the lower possible cost to the customers of our Member-Owners and this collaborative effort will enable us to continue reaching that goal,” she said.

Hertel said the collaboration will be beneficial in providing power access in the east but that it will not solve all of Kansas’ transmission line needs that might have been solved through the Holcomb Expansion Project.

“However, the most valuable transmission connection is to the west. That's where the population growth is, and as a result, that's where the load growth is,” Hertel said.

“Without the Holcomb Expansion Project, improvements on the high-voltage transmission lines from western Kansas into the western regions of the U.S. will be delayed, if made at all,” Hertel said.

Hertel said Sunflower Electric doesn't work with the state or use state dollars for projects.

- Holly Smith

The Week in Review