KEY QUOTE:  “We're definitely not going to rest on our laurels, we are continuing to aggressively recruit other businesses and industries,” Gov. Kelly said. “And we've had at least eight other companies approach us saying they wanted to look at Kansas for an upcoming project. Success begets success, which means companies and industries are starting to approach us, and we'll continue to aggressively pursue and respond to calls to the office to see what we can do.” 

Kelly Touts Successes as Governor with Economic Progress

“There are several projects we're proud of, especially recently. In July, a major announcement came with Panasonic running a $4 billion capital investment in De Soto that will create 4,000 jobs at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition site,”?Gov. Kelly said. “That is huge, and it will be transformational not only for the northeastern part of the state, but there will be ripple effects all across the rest of the state.”

“We also invested in our public school system because companies need a trained workforce, so we need to make sure children in K-12 are getting a good foundation and education,”?Gov. Kelly said. “There are also now many Career and Technical Education options available for them as well as the four-year universities and research facilities.”

“We knew we would need all of that in order to be able to grow, so we put all of those factors in place, and it's worked, and we've gotten a lot of recognition for being a good place to do business. We've gotten award after award, including the Governor's Cup, we were recognized as the state with the most new capital investment per capita in the U.S. in 2021, which we were very proud of.”

“With all due modesty, I'd have to give ourselves an A-plus with everything we’ve been able to accomplish,” Gov. Kelly said. “Other entities like Site Selection magazine and Area Development, they're all showering us with awards and honors for what we've been doing, including the aforementioned Governor's Cup and the Gold Shovel (for the second year in a row) because of all the success we've had.”