Governor's Rural Life Task Force
Governor Kathleen Sebelius assembled the 43-member Rural Life Task Force in 2003 to bring together many representative voices of rural communities to cultivate a common vision and preliminary action plan to preserve and enhance rural Kansas.
Task force members were selected for their energy, enthusiasm and dedication to all facets of rural Kansas.They represent different communities, professions and memberships, and they share a commitment to rural Kansas.
Members were divided into four teams to identify possible action items for local leaders, communities and the state in areas of:
- Agriculture and a diversified economy
- Energy and infrastructure
- Government
- Community empowerment
- Health and human services
Successful initiatives that resulted from the work of the task force include:
- Agritourism: A tax credit to help agritourism operators obtain liability insurance. The state also hired a nationally know agritourism consulted, appointed a statewide agritourism council, published an agritourism guide and sponsored a highly successful statewide agritourism conference.
- Energy: Governor Sebelius issued an executive order to create the Kansas Energy Council, a group with a broad-based membership charged to help more effectively address energy policy and planning in Kansas. The Kansas Energy Council published the Kansas Energy Plan-2004, which included recommendations: to authorize the Kansas Development Finance Authority to offer revenue or municipal bonds to finance Kansas energy projects; to adopt language clarifying that negotiations and discussions between wind energy developers and local governments regarding voluntary payments for wind projects are legal; to remove mandatory labeling from 10 percent ethanol mixtures at the gas pump.
- Economic Development in Rural Areas: A number of actions have been taken as a result of task force suggestions and regional Prosperity Summits. These include the creation of a Center for Entrepreneurship, the development of a single, statewide, comprehensive economic development resource website and toll-free number, the creation of a Kansas Rural Entrepreneurship Committee, and the development of a Rural Business Development Tax Credit program in the seven economic development regions.
Last year, Governor Sebelius announced three communities were selected to participate in a two-year pilot project that will eventually help rural communities statewide grow and achieve more sustainable futures. The three communities – Onaga, Smith Center and Eastern Cowley County – share common goals. They want to retain and expand their populations, preserve existing businesses and create opportunities for new ones, and diversify their economies to create jobs. They were selected for their vision, and will provide communities statewide with examples of how to maintain our state’s rich cultural heritage.
One of the original action points identified by the Rural Life Task Force’s agriculture team was to review rules and regulations regarding direct-marketed and value-added agricultural commodities. After three meetings of a stakeholders’ group created to discuss these issues, some concrete plans are forming. The Department of Agriculture is proposing new food safety regulation changes that will clarify many questions for direct marketers selling in farmers markets or home-based businesses. Kansas State University is updating the Food Processors Guide. The departments of commerce and agriculture conducted workshops for direct marketers across the state prior to the next growing season. A newly formed Kansas Food Policy Council is addressing issues of regional markets, purchases of local products, healthy food and human nutrition, and food security.
Rural Life Task Force Reports