photo by: Peter Hancock

Gov. Sam Brownback offered two divergent views of the Kansas economy Friday, at once giving his tax cuts credit for an improved business and labor climate in the state, while at the same time blaming the state’s sagging revenues on poor economic conditions throughout the region.

Brownback made those comments during a rare and wide-ranging discussion with reporters in his inner office, during which he also talked about the recent primary elections, his views about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and the prospects of establishing a dental school at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

His views about the state of the economy, and the relative success of his tax policies, will be the focus of debate in 2017, when a new, and likely more moderate-leaning Legislature comes into office.

Brownback is scheduled to speak Saturday at former President Ronald Reagan’s ranch during ceremonies marking the 35th anniversary of the passage of Reagan’s federal tax cuts, something Brownback said was an inspiration for the tax plan he championed in 2012.

“We’re going against the national curve of reduction of small-business numbers,” Brownback said. “Kansas is seeing a growth in small-business numbers.”

Specifically, Brownback said, new businesses and new business wealth have been moving from Missouri into Kansas. And he said that since 2014, the state has started seeing a net migration of people moving into the state instead of people moving out.

But then, continuing in the same train of thought, Brownback shifted the conversation to the recent primary elections, when many of his allies in the Legislature were defeated by more moderate candidates; Brownback said voters were expressing frustration about the budget, which he blamed on a poor economy.

“Everybody’s been frustrated with that. I certainly have been,” Brownback said. “But I hope people can look at it, too, in the regional context as well. Oklahoma’s having significant problems. Your resource-based states and countries are. That’s not to say we shouldn’t look at things, because we should. And I’ll work with the Legislature.”

But when asked how both of those assessments of the economy could be true at the same time, Brownback said he saw no contradiction.

“Those are not opposed views,” he said. “The base of the Kansas economy is the old three-legged stool (agriculture, oil and gas production, and aviation), and that continues to be the base of the economy. And that base has really been struggling. The Bureau of Economic (Analysis) said we had contraction last year, primarily built off of ag and oil.”

The economic growth the state has seen, Brownback said, has been primarily in the Kansas City area, which he said has a much different and more diversified economic base than the rest of the state.

Meanwhile, Brownback repeatedly shrugged off suggestions made by many other observers that the defeat of so many conservative Republicans in the Aug. 2 primary was a repudiation of him or his administration. Instead, he suggested voters were frustrated about the budget and school finance.

“Generally it’s school funding, is the issue that’s cited,” he said. “That’s the frustrating piece. Are they frustrated that we’ve improved the pension system in the state? Generally it’s K-12 funding, and that overall during my administration has gone up, and still is higher than when I started.”

In other matters, Brownback repeated his position on Medicaid expansion, saying he is not completely opposed to it, but will only consider such a plan once the state eliminates waiting lists for Medicaid-eligible people seeking home and community-based services.

He also said any Medicaid expansion plan must have a work requirement for able-bodied adults, and it must have a sustainable funding stream.

When asked whether he and other Republicans were getting nervous about presidential candidate Donald Trump, in light of a string of inflammatory statements that Trump has made in recent days, Brownback said he still supports the GOP nominee.

“I know who Hillary Clinton will appoint to the Supreme Court, and she’ll move it left,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that, and so the elections are about choices. Donald Trump was not my first choice.”

Brownback had officially endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican caucuses in Kansas.

And the governor offered support for an idea discussed earlier in the week by the Kansas Board of Regents of establishing a dental school at KU Medical Center.

“I think it’s a good prospect for us, long term, and I think we’re going to have needs, but people have got to work it through the process,” he said. “You’ve got capacity at KU Med to be able to get into this at a lower cost.”

He noted that with a new education building under construction, the medical school will have space available in the older building, and it already has faculty that teach some of the basic health courses required in dentistry.

“That seems to me something we really should be looking at,” he said. “These are things that take years to get in place, but I think there’s some good capacity there and that’s why I’ve supported it and I think we ought to continue to look at it.”