New business applications declining in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNT) – New data from the United State Census Bureau shows business creation in lagging Kansas.
It’s the only state to have fewer business applications last quarter than in the final quarter of 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president.
The numbers show Kansas had 5,437 applications to start a business in the second quarter of 2019, which is 56 less than in 2016. That number was higher than 6,000 in the middle of last year, but started to go down since.
“I think we need to critically ask do we have a atmosphere that encourages and nurtures startups, government frankly can only do so much of that but we need to critically review, are there hurdles that we need to remove,” said Alan Cobb, President of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
Cobb said he wants the state to be as to business friendly as possible. One major concern he said is that President Trump’s tax cuts aren’t impacting Kansas as much as they could.
“Because Kansas did not adjust its tax code to adhere to the Trump tax cuts, we’re not seeing the benefit at the state level,” he said.
Cobb said business applications are different than business activity, but the decline in numbers certainly isn’t a good sign.
You can see how Kansas compares to the rest of the nation, here.