Only one committee in the Kansas House of Representatives has a leadership team comprised of three lawmakers living west of U.S. 81.
It’s the new Rural Revitalization Committee.
The problems of rural Kansas are varied and challenging, “but perhaps we can bend the curve,” said Committee Chairman State Rep. Don Hineman, R-Dighton. Rounding out the leadership team are Vice Chairman State Rep. Adam Smith, R-Weskan, and Ranking Minority Member State Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson.
“It’s pretty open-ended,” Hineman said of the committee’s agenda. “That’s what has most people excited,” according to Smith. Just about any topic that is a concern for rural areas – broadband access, health care services, adequate housing, economic development, agribusiness, declining school enrollment – overlaps the agendas of other legislative committees. In the committee’s first week, Kansas State University’s Associate Professor of Sociology Matthew Sanderson talked about population trends. There are counties where 55 of every 100 people are over 65, Probst said. “The math doesn’t work to replace that over time,” Probst said.
If population trends continue, projections show that by 2044, Probst said, 47 percent of Kansans will live somewhere in the five northeast counties of Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Douglas, and Shawnee counties, Probst said.
“Very sobering report,” committee member and freshman State Rep. Paul Waggoner, R-Hutchinson, said of Sanderson’s presentation.
On the committee’s agenda during the week of Jan. 22 will be speakers addressing the topics of rural demographics, rural development and challenges, and rural tourism development.
“It’s important for us all to understand where rural Kansas has come from before we can begin good discussions about where we are going – and how to get there,” Smith wrote in an email.
The committee’s focus right now is not planning legislation but listening and learning, Probst said.
(Read more: Local – The Hutchinson News)