State programs could entice out-of-staters

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June 26, 2013 - 12:00 AM

Numbers flew every which way in an Allen County Commission meeting Tuesday morning. All were part and parcel to the commissioners putting together the county’s 2014 budget.
One set of numbers may lead to attraction of professionals and former Kansans who have lived away from the state at least five years.
Larry Tucker, Humboldt administrator, and Barbara Anderson, employee of the Kansas Department of Commerce (DOC), proposed commissioners provide financial incentives for college graduates to return.
A program the Kansas Department of Commerce will unveil in detail by July 1 would repay up to $15,000 of college loans to students who locate in the county and stayed at least five years.
The state DOC will match up to $1,500 a county provides — a total of $3,000 — each year for up to five years to repay student loans.
The county also may be a conduit for a business —  such as a hospital seeking trained personnel — or an industry that puts up money and then has latitude to choose the recipient.
“I’ve talked to our industries in Humboldt, and they need engineers,” Tucker said.
“It’s a program to bring people back or get new ones to move here,” said Anderson.
Another program, already in place and also under auspices of the Department of Commerce, encourages former residents to return, by forgiving income taxes for up to five years.
Eligibility requires a participant to have lived out-of-state at least five years and not to have had in-state earnings of more than $10,000 in any of those years.
The programs are part of the Kansas Rural Opportunity Zone, which embraces all but a handful of the state’s 105 counties. Allen County already is enrolled in the income tax forgiveness program; commissioners will decide whether to sign on to the student loan payment program.
Tucker is enthusiastic about the possibilities of both, the student loan portion in particular.
Putting up match-money for the student incentive “isn’t an expense to the county,” Tucker said. “It’s an investment.”

DEPARTMENT heads generally asked for modest increases in their budgets as they traipsed before commissioners, and also gave brief commentaries about what functions their staffs carry out.
Several agencies that depend on Allen and other counties for funding made requests.
Tim Cunningham, Tri-Valley Development Services, asked for a $5,000 increase to $65,000 in 2014.
Cunningham lamented state cuts had taken a toll on Tri-Valley, and not just this year. He recalled that 14 years ago the agency had 255 employees, 175 when he became its director seven years ago and with a reduction of six positions this year now has 142. Client numbers, currently at 208, have remained fairly static in recent years, he said, and that a waiting list exists for services for the developmentally disable.
“Some of the clients we have could use more services than we’re able to give with the staff we have,” Cunningham said.
Iola has a service center, 10 W. Jackson Ave., that “is packed with clients,” Cunningham said. They perform contract work for area businesses and industries.
Becky Gray, representing Southeast Kansas Community Action Program, noted it received no financial support from Allen County and expected none for 2014.
However, Gray did ask that commissioners assist through supporting letters whenever the group sought grants or put together initiatives to help the needy.
SEK-CAP’s funding comes from the federal government, and has seen it cut by $100,000 to $200,000 in recent years. Part of that, she added, was federal emphasis to shift funding from eastern to western Kansas, where community action programs haven’t had as much of a presence.
Non-federal grant proceeds may become more of a component of SEK-CAP’s funding, Gray added.
SEK-CAP operates a pre-school in Iola and “we hope we can remain helpful here,” she said, through economic development.
Bob Chase, director of Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, asked commissioners to provide funding of $113,600 for its 2014 budget. This year Allen County contributed $110,300. In 2012, the county provided $105,941.
Chase said changes had occurred for the mental health group, and others were expected in 2014.
Kansas switched to private management of Medicaid through KanCare on Jan. 1, which led to “issues with changing demands from the managed care organizations for authorizing services,” Chase said, as well as payment issues. “These were not unexpected but dealing with three sets of authorization processes and reimbursement problems has caused additional stress for all involved.”
A new mental health care initiative starts Monday, and even with the start just days away “details are still being developed,” Chase said. “We expect to receive the same amount of state funding, but how we use it will change.”
He noted the center’s case load in Allen County had remained relatively steady the past six years, teetering to just above 1,000 people a year.
All but a handful of the mental health group’s nearly 4,000 patients come from six counties, mainly Allen and Neosho, along with Anderson, Bourbon, Linn and Woodson.

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