You may not have known this, but Missouri has been at war.
Actually, it’s more of an ongoing feud between us and our neighbor, Kansas. But that might be changing with a recent action taken by Governor Mike Parson to come to a truce on the economic conflict.
Yesterday, Parson signed Senate Bill 182, which restricts the award of incentives to companies moving from Kansas to certain Missouri counties.
“We want to work together with our peers in Kansas to support the growth of the entire Kansas City region,” said Parson in a press release. “Incentivizing companies to move a few miles doesn’t result in new jobs for the citizens of Kansas or Missouri, and it takes state resources away from other priorities that would result in true growth for the state.”
It affects Johnson, Miami, and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties in Missouri.
The governor’s office cites the Hall Family Foundation, whose research has found that 10,000 jobs have moved between the two states in the last decade. That has accumulated an incentive cost of around $330 million.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly needs to make a similar agreement in order for the truce to go into effect.