KS in general (Wichita, Plains, Republic: credit, home, unemployment)

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Good discussion.

Annual State-Local Tax Burden Ranking (2010) - New York Citizens Pay the Most, Alaska the Least | Tax Foundation

This website looks at total tax burden and KS is fairly middle of the road in that regard. As such, I really don't view KS as a high tax state compared to most of it's neighbors.

Since the entire country continues to depopulate it's rural areas with increased large-scale agriculture, none of the trends you displayed are remotely surprising.

I'm not sure I agree with the portion of your analysis solely looking at the "job losses" because that doesn't address the outward migration of people and thus less demand on certain services as well. With the states unemployment level around 12th best in the country it may not follow that there needs to be large tax increases due to the rural "job losses".

There are so many factors in play that it will be a long time before things become clearer on the topic and outside economic forces can make things better or worse despite any plans to the contrary.

Yes, I think this is a good discussion to have because I want to further elaborate and clarify some of those points. That is a good link regarding the Tax Burden issue...

I was referring to the fact that Kansas has relatively high taxes based on its overall population size and the fact that many low population states tend to have a lower overall tax burden, or lack an income tax entirely. The states that currently do not have an income tax include: Alaska, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Texas, South Dakota, Tennessee, and New Hampshire. The last two states do tax dividend and interest income from investments, though.

"I'm not sure I agree with the portion of your analysis solely looking at the "job losses" because that doesn't address the outward migration of people and thus less demand on certain services as well. With the states unemployment level around 12th best in the country it may not follow that there needs to be large tax increases due to the rural "job losses"."

That isn't what I directly addressed. I posted the current total number of jobs that exist in the largest cities and towns outside of Johnson County and compared it to the total employment number using 2000 as a benchmark. I did not include any rural counties on my list, or any isolated agriculturally dependent counties. If the largest city in the state, Wichita, has fewer jobs overall compared to 2000 it certainly doesn't paint a good picture. Also, it concerns me that the two largest university cities have fewer jobs now compared to 2000. That is really kind of hard to believe considering these two cities have been consistently adding people over time compared to the out-migration across the board that has been occurring in other areas of the state. Also, that tends to explain the lower unemployment rates found in rural states in general, regardless of political orientation. South Dakota, Vermont, and Iowa are all rural states with low unemployment rates, but they certainly don't have much in the way of job growth outside a few select metros in each respective state. You factor in the out-migration quotient based on the number of people that left the state to take a job in a different state and it will make any unemployment rate look better.

[thriftylefty]

IMO so far most of the glowing reports come from an area of Kansas that lies very close to a large progressive area that is not in the state of Kansas. This seems to validate what some poster's from that other state have been saying. The rest of Kansas is not doing uniformly so good.

In some places yes housing is cheap. In parts of Southeast Kansas as little a $50,000 to $75,000 will get you an older completely remolded two story three or four bedroom house in a good location. Some of those houses sit empty and foreclosed on because the slum lords aren't interested and there are not enough good jobs to go around.

In small town Kansas a good number of what was called "middle class" were the State ,Federal an municipal workers, The economy with help from the current administration is killing off those jobs.

[kcmo]

granitestater, I honestly do not know the answer to this question, but are there many other states where 27% of the jobs are in one county, especially a suburban county?

Possibly ST Louis County? Just wondering.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by kcmo

granitestater, I honestly do not know the answer to this question, but are there many other states where 27% of the jobs are in one county, especially a suburban county?

Possibly ST Louis County? Just wondering.

Yes...
Nebraska would be a classic example.

Omaha (Douglas County)
302,633 total jobs

Nebraska
797,681 total jobs

Percentage of total employment concentrated in Omaha vs the rest of the state: 38%

When you add in Sarpy County (southside of Omaha metro, Offutt AFB) and Lancaster County (Lincoln) the percentage jumps to 61%.

That is a rather extreme example compared to most states.

[kcmo]

Well, that's a county that includes most of urban and suburban Omaha. I was thinking of a county that is purely suburban. That's why St Louis County came to mine.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by kcmo

granitestater, I honestly do not know the answer to this question, but are there many other states where 27% of the jobs are in one county, especially a suburban county?

Possibly ST Louis County? Just wondering.

Cook County probably has a preponderance of jobs for IL, not user the % though.

Given the completely arbitrary assignment of state borders in many cases it's hard to care too much.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Well, that's a county that includes most of urban and suburban Omaha. I was thinking of a county that is purely suburban. That's why St Louis County came to mine.

St. Louis County, MO
Total Employment (2011): 545,858
Total Employment for Missouri (2011): 2,298,295.
Percentage Employment compared to the total employment number: 23.7%

Jackson County, MO
Total Employment (2011): 314,471
Total Employment for Missouri (2011): 2,298,295
Percentage Employment compared to the total employment number: 13.7%

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Cook County probably has a preponderance of jobs for IL, not user the % though.

Given the completely arbitrary assignment of state borders in many cases it's hard to care too much.

Chicagoland metro area (Illinois counties): Cook, Lake, DuPage, Will, McHenry, Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, and Grundy.

Core of Chicago (Cook County): Employment= 2,193,827
Percentage of employment concentrated in Cook County compared to Illinois: 43.5%

Suburban Counties of Chicago: Employment= 1,380,668

Total Perccentage Concentration of Employment in the Chicagoland metro counties of Illinois compared to the remainder of the state: 70.9%.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Cook County probably has a preponderance of jobs for IL, not user the % though.

Given the completely arbitrary assignment of state borders in many cases it's hard to care too much.

You did not directly respond to my other replies recently so I assume we are in agreement for the most part. I do find it concerning that JOCO is the only economic engine that the state has currently, yet only contains a bit more than 1/4 of the total jobs in the state. That is a big problem when the rest of the state has not seen a strong meaningful level of job growth in percentage terms for over a decade and a half. Don't count on Brownback doing anything as he is focused on his own personal agenda, unfortunately.

[AnywhereElse]

Excellent article on all areas of the state and employment trends: Wichita’s recession job losses drag down Kansas; small counties are ‘bright spots’ - KansasCity.com