Builder vs. Blocker: A Clear Choice for Salina’s Future

Jay Vanier

Salina’s growth did not happen by accident. Places residents know and use today, including The Alley, The Garage, The Fieldhouse, Barolo, Blue Skye, Old Chicago, 1858 Coffee House, YaYa’s, Homewood Suites, Kohl’s, Shoe Carnival, Longhorn Steakhouse, Buffalo Wild Wings, Southview Estates and Aero Plains homes, reflect a community that chose to compete, invest, and grow.

Projects like these required more than optimism. They depended on development tools such as STAR bonds, TIF-style financing, and RHID housing incentives to help make projects financially feasible, attract private investment, and broaden the local tax base. That is the core policy difference at issue in this race.

Steven Howe’s Record on Development Votes

Since taking office in 2021, Steven Howe has voted no on a series of major bills tied to economic development incentives, housing incentives, tourism incentives, or project-attraction tools.

In 2021, Howe voted no on SB 66, which passed the House 109–12 and made changes to the Kansas angel investor tax credit act, including rules on qualified securities, credit limits, investor requirements, and qualified Kansas business designation. He also voted no on SB 124, which passed the House 101–23 and was the year’s major STAR bond expansion and reform bill.

In 2022, Howe voted no on SB 347, the APEX bill, which passed the House 80–41. That measure created Kansas’s megaproject recruitment framework for projects involving at least $1 billion in capital investment.

In 2023, Howe voted no on the conference committee report for SB 17, which passed the House 63–59 with 1 present. That bill expanded the use of bond proceeds under the Kansas Reinvestment Housing Incentive District Act and expanded transferability under the Kansas housing investor tax credit act which played a critical role in making AeroPlanes and Southview Estates a reality.

In 2024, Howe voted no on the conference committee report for SB 467, which passed the House 94–26. That conference report changed the Department of Commerce tourism matching-grant program, created the STAR Bonds Food Sales Tax Revenue Replacement Fund, expanded STAR bonds to include historic theaters, increased the rural redevelopment finance cap, and allowed legislative approval of a port authority. The same year, during the special session, Howe also voted no on HB 2001, the sports STAR-bond bill, which passed the House 84–38 and authorized STAR-bond financing for major professional sports projects.

In 2025, Howe voted no on HB 2083, which passed the House 90–29 and created a property-tax exemption for new energy storage systems. He also voted no on the conference committee report for SB 98, which passed the House 85–37 and provided a sales-tax exemption for qualified data centers, including construction and remodeling costs, data center equipment, certain eligible costs, and some labor costs for firms meeting large investment and Kansas jobs thresholds.

In 2026, Howe voted no on SB 197, which passed the House 82–38. SB 197 extended the STAR bond program, added reporting and transparency requirements, and strengthened safeguards and accountability measures. He also voted no on the initial House passage of HB 2737, which passed 110–14 and created a new TIF-style project-financing method through taxpayer agreements.

HB 2737: The Vote, the Senate Changes, and the Later Switch

HB 2737 is worth discussing separately because it shows both the original House vote and the later concurrence vote.

On initial House passage in 2026, HB 2737 passed 110–14, and Steven Howe voted no. The bill created an alternative project-financing method through taxpayer agreements, often described as a TIF-style financing tool.

After that vote, the bill went to the Senate. The Senate changes did not remove the bill’s development-financing purpose. Instead, the amendments focused mainly on protecting existing lenders and lienholders. Those changes included requiring written consent from existing mortgage or deed-of-trust holders, stating that the taxpayer agreement could not constitute an event of default under existing loan documents, and clarifying that, without that written consent, any lien created under the agreement would be subordinate to the existing mortgage or deed of trust.

In other words, the Senate made the bill more protective of current lenders, but did not fundamentally rewrite the bill’s project-financing structure. When the measure returned to the House on concurrence, Howe changed his vote and voted yes. The sequence is straightforward: he voted no on initial House passage, and later voted yes after targeted lender-protection revisions were added.

SB 197: The Clearer STAR-Bond Contrast

If HB 2737 shows a change between initial passage and concurrence, SB 197 shows a more direct and consistent position.

SB 197 was the major 2026 STAR bond bill. It extended the STAR bond program, added transparency and reporting requirements, and strengthened program safeguards. The House passed it 82–38, and Steven Howe voted no.

Why the Record Matters

The central issue is not whether every bill was identical. It is that, from 2021 through 2026, Howe cast a series of no votes on major legislation tied to STAR bonds, APEX, RHID housing incentives, TIF-style financing, tourism-related redevelopment, and project-attraction tools. The voting data show repeated opposition to those measures at key moments.

For a Salina-focused article, that record can be presented as a broader policy contrast: whether the community should use development tools, with oversight and accountability, to pursue investment, housing, redevelopment, and tax-base growth, or take a more skeptical approach to those tools