Secretary Perdue’s manufactured quandary reignites border war

In the same breath, Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, recently promised to award one contract to Kansas — as well as to Missouri.

And then he told us he’d decide the winner depending on who showered the federal agency he manages with the most with favors.

The confusion comes from Sec. Perdue’s announcement last week that the Department of Agriculture is moving two of its agencies from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City, coyly omitting which side of the state line the offices would locate.

The relocation of the USDA’s Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture means 500 jobs coming to the area.

Perdue pretends to be innocent of the potential for conflict, maintaining representatives of the Kansas City metropolitan area submitted their application for the designation “as a region.”

Anyone who’s been here more than a minute knows of the long-standing “border war” between the Kansas and Missouri sides of Kansas City. For years, we’ve had conglomerates shift their headquarters a mile or two from one side to the other, depending on the economic development incentives offered. And of course, when one company learned of the largesse, others followed, expecting the same.

The practice has cost both states hundreds of millions in taxes, created no new jobs, and engendered hostile relations.

Perdue said state and local governments have offered the department $26 million in incentives to locate their way.

PARDON OUR naïveté, but since when does the federal government, a la Amazon, encourage state governments subsidize it to do the nation’s business?

Seems everything comes with a price tag these days.

When pressed, Perdue wouldn’t say what the incentives include, shrouding the entire process in secrecy.

Typical of today’s politics, Sec. Perdue has put us in the ring “against” Missouri in some manufactured battle.

We suggest Sec. Perdue quit playing off regional rivalries, sit down with a map and make up his own mind. It would save us and our neighbors a lot of sleep, and even more in valuable state finances. 

— Susan Lynn