Salina is the biggest city in central and north-central Kansas. South of Salina is the small city of Lindsborg. Lindsborg has many Dala horses. Abilene was where President Dwight D. Eisenhower lived. It is where his Presidential Library is. It also has the tombs of the former President, First Lady and son who died in infancy.
The city of Hays is the biggest city in the northwest as it has about 20,000 people living there. Hays is where Fort Hays State University is. It also has the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.
There are very few people that live west of Hays. There are only two towns that have at least 4,000 people: Colby and Goodland.
Dodge City was famous for the cattle drives it had in the late 19th century. It was built along the old Santa Fe Trail route. The city of Liberal is along the southern Santa Fe Trail route. The first wind farm in the state was built east of Montezuma. Garden City has the Lee Richardson Zoo.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Kansas's total gross domestic product in 2014 was billion. In 2015, the job growth rate in was .8%. This was one of the lowest rate in America with only "10,900 total nonfarm jobs" added that year. The Kansas Department of Labor's 2016 report found the average yearly wage was $42,930 in 2015. In April 2016, the state's unemployment rate was 4.2%.
The State of Kansas had a $350 million budget deficit in February 2017. In February 2017, S&P downgraded Kansas's credit rating to AA-.
Farming has always been an important part of the state economy of Kansas. The main crop grown in Kansas is wheat. In fact, Kansas farmers produce about 400 million bushels of wheat per year. Kansas also ranks first in the United States in grain sorghum produced, second in cropland, and third in sunflowers produced. However, farming is not the only important part of the economy of Kansas. Many parts of airplanes are made in the city of Wichita. Also, many important companies are near Kansas City, Missouri. For example, the Sprint Nextel Corporation is one of the largest telephone companies in the United States. Its main operational offices are in Overland Park, Kansas.
About 90% of Kansas's land is used for farming. Kansas's agricultural products are cattle, sheep, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, hogs, corn, and salt. As of 2018, there were 59,600 farms in Kansas, 86 (0.14%) of which are certified organic farms. The average farm in the state is about 770 acres (more than a square mile). In 2016, the average cost of running the farm was $300,000.
The industrial products are transportation equipment, commercial and private aircraft, food processing, publishing, chemical products, machinery, apparel, petroleum, and mining.
The median household income for Kansas was $47,709 in 2009. The gross domestic product (GDP) for Kansas was $122,700,000,000 ($122.7 billion) in 2008. Overall, Kansas' GDP accounts for less than 1 percent of total U.S. economy.
Kansas has three big military bases: Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and McConnell Air Force Base. The US Army reserve has about 25,000 soldiers at these bases, and they also have about 8,000 civilian employees there.
During his campaign for the 2010 election, Governor Sam Brownback said he would get rid of the state income tax. In May 2012, Governor Brownback signed into law the Kansas Senate Bill Substitute HB 2117. Starting in 2013, the "ambitious tax overhaul" lowered income tax, got rid of some corporate taxes, and created pass-through income tax exemptions. He raised the sales tax by one percent to make up for the loss of the other taxes. However, the sales tax was not enough to make up for it. He made cuts to education and some state services to make up for the lost revenue. The tax cut led to years of budget shortfalls. The worst was a $350 million budget shortfall in February 2017. From 2013 to 2017, 300,000 businesses were considered to be pass-through income entities and benefited from the tax exemption. The tax reform "encouraged tens of thousands of Kansans to claim their wages and salaries as income from a business rather than from employment."
The economic growth that Brownback hoped for never happened. He argued that it was because of "low wheat and oil prices and a fewer aircraft sales." The state general fund debt load was $83 million in fiscal year 2010. By fiscal year 2017 the debt load sat at $179 million. In 2016, Governor Brownback earned the title of "most unpopular governor in America". Only 26 percent of Kansas voters approved of his job performance. 65 percent said they did not. In the summer of 2016, S&P Global Ratings downgraded Kansas's credit rating. In February 2017, S&P lowered it to AA-.
In February 2017, a bi-partisan group wrote a bill that would repeal the pass-through income exemption, the "most important provisions of Brownback's overhaul", and raise taxes to make up for the budget shortfall. Brownback vetoed the bill but "45 GOP legislators had voted in favor of the increase, while 40 voted to uphold the governor's veto." On June 6, 2017 a group of Democrats and newly elected Republicans overrode Brownback's veto. They increased taxes to an amount that is close to what it was before 2013. Brownback's tax plan was described in a June 2017 article in "The Atlantic" as the United States' "most aggressive experiment in conservative economic policy". The tax cuts had made schools and infrastructure difficult to get funding in Kansas.
There are two interstate highways in Kansas. The first part of the interstate highway opened on Interstate 70 west of Topeka. It opened on November 14, 1956.
Interstate 70 is an important east–west highway. People can go from Kansas City, Missouri to Denver, Colorado. Cities on this highway include Colby, Hays, Salina, Junction City, Topeka, Lawrence, Bonner Springs, and Kansas City.
Interstate 35 is a major north–south highway from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Des Moines, Iowa. Cities on this highway include Wichita, El Dorado, Emporia, Ottawa, and Kansas City (and suburbs).
Kansas's only major commercial (Class C) airport is Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. It is along US-54 on the western part of Wichita. Manhattan Regional Airport in Manhattan has flights every day to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. This would it the second-biggest commercial airport in Kansas. Most air travelers in northeastern Kansas fly out of Kansas City International Airport, which is in Platte County, Missouri. Some also use the Topeka Regional Airport in Topeka.
In the state's southeastern part, people often use Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Joplin Regional Airport in Joplin, Missouri. People in the far western part of the state often use the Denver International Airport. Connecting flights are also available from smaller Kansas airports in Dodge City, Garden City, Hays, Hutchinson, Liberal, or Salina.
The "Southwest Chief" Amtrak route goes through the state on its route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Stops in Kansas include Lawrence, Topeka, Newton, Hutchinson, Dodge City, and Garden City. An Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach connects Newton and Wichita to the Heartland Flyer in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Amtrak may change the Southwest Chief route from using train service for the entire route. Plans call for shortening the route to Los Angeles to instead end in Albuquerque. Buses would replace the train on the route between Albuquerque and Dodge City, where train service east to Chicago would continue.
Kansas has four Class I railroads, Amtrak, BNSF, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific, as well as many shortline railroads.
Executive branch: The executive branch has the governor, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general, the secretary of state, the treasurer, and the insurance commissioner.