Leavenworth County Port Authority

Leavenworth County Port Authority is a quasi-governmental agency established under state statute in 1969 to guide and direct port development. Today, it owns and manages land on behalf of the community – land designed to support job creation. The Leavenworth County Port Authority also plays a role in advocating for the development of property and infrastructure for industrial and commercial projects that increase capital investment and job creation. The Leavenworth County Port Authority consists of seven appointed board members who contracts with Leavenworth County Development Corporation for marketing services and staff work.

Leavenworth County Development Corporation is the lead organization responsible for business attraction, retention, expansion, and economic development coordination in Leavenworth County. For example, the Leavenworth County Development Corporation meets with site selectors and realtors representing businesses, showing them sites and buildings that are available in Leavenworth County, connecting them with workforce and government leaders, and playing a role in helping to bring a project to Leavenworth County. It is common practice for each community in the U.S. to have a designated economic development team to handle this process. Leavenworth County Development Corporation staff also visit approximately 40 businesses per year, listening to their concerns, connecting them to resources, and helping them overcome any barriers to success so they can stay and thrive in Leavenworth County. These face-to-face meetings provide business leaders with hands-on support and show them that the County wants their business. Leavenworth County Development Corporation provides a public-private organization for all of Leavenworth County with full-time, credentialed staff, dedicated to pursuing economic development for the county and the communities within it.

The Leavenworth County Port Authority operates under the Kansas Open Meetings Act, with meeting agendas, notes, and recordings posted online. Leavenworth County Port Authority is accountable to elected officials who appoint board members. There are representatives on the board from communities in Leavenworth County, along with a countywide representative, and local leaders. Board members are volunteers interested in ensuring Leavenworth County has a strong economy and are not paid for their time. Open Meetings laws dictate that when board members get together, the meeting is documented, recorded and available for the public to watch, ensuring complete transparency.
Leavenworth County Development Corporation is not a government organization. Leavenworth County Development Corporation is a public-private organization accountable to its members and investors. Leavenworth County Development Corporation does not take or manage taxpayer funds directly. It does not offer companies financial incentives either. Instead, Leavenworth County Development Corporation does the work of economic development and plays a key role in initiating economic development conversations with local governments.

A Leavenworth County Port Authority board member is a volunteer position with no compensation. The Leavenworth County Port Authority has a board of seven members appointed jointly by the Board of County Commissioners and the Commissions of the cities of Leavenworth, Lansing, Tonganoxie and Basehor and serve three-year terms.

A Leavenworth County Development Corporation board member is a volunteer position with no compensation. The Leavenworth County Development Corporation Board consists of 18–27 members, including representatives from the county and three cities, with a five-member executive committee. Past members generally have been CEOs and business leaders, but general community members are encouraged to express interest. Board members must be Leavenworth County Development Corporation investors. They are appointed annually in January to serve 3-year terms.

Board members may serve on both boards, but it’s not required.

No. Board members with both organizations are volunteer positions with no compensation. Board members are not “getting in on economic development project deals.” This is a common misconception. Oversight by public officials ensures transparency and fairness. In addition, the Open Meetings Act ensures that all meetings are recorded and available to the public. The public can attend meetings or listen at any time. In addition, the Leavenworth County Port Authority’s obligation to abide by the Open Meetings Act ensures that all their meetings are recorded and available to the public. The public can attend meetings or listen at any time. Members of the public who attend meetings will get information at the same time as the board.

The boards are made of community-minded individuals committed to responsible economic growth. In 2024 alone, 44 volunteers committed nearly 675 hours of their time to Leavenworth economic development, saving approximately $35,000 that would have been paid out to private contractors instead.

For the upcoming budget year, Leavenworth County Port Authority funding from the County is expected to fall between $25,000 and $75,000.

With significantly reduced county funding, economic development efforts in Leavenworth County will face serious limitations. The Leavenworth County Port Authority and the Leavenworth County Development Corporation are the only organizations dedicated solely to driving economic development in the county.

Sustained investment in economic development is essential to ensure Leavenworth County remains competitive with surrounding communities, prepared for future growth, and positioned as a destination of choice. It’s about creating lasting opportunities for today’s families, their children and grandchildren to build a future and thrive right here at home.

Additionally, the Leavenworth County Development Corporation is the organization responsible for supporting the existing business community, ensuring that obstacles are removed that could hinder their growth or become reasons for relocating to another county. These visits require the Leavenworth County Development Corporation to have a staff person dedicated to supporting businesses. Without funding, it will be impossible for us to do so. These organizations have proven results that include creating new jobs and increasing capital investment, which helps expand the tax base and reduce the tax burden on homeowners.

If the organizations remain underfunded, it will make it more difficult for Leavenworth County to compete with surrounding counties. Having these countywide organizations combines the knowledge and expertise from both the public and private sectors along with a dedicated, full-time team with economic development credentials working closely with our regional partner, Kansas City Area Development Council (KCADC) and our state partners at Kansas Commerce to bring regional and national exposure and help facilitate the creation and retention of jobs and capital investment for Leavenworth County. Reducing funds for these organizations will severely limit future growth in Leavenworth County. In other words, saving money now by cutting funding for economic development can have consequences that last for decades. If we want businesses and jobs to come to Leavenworth County, we need to prioritize attracting them and supporting existing businesses that are here.

In the past two years, Leavenworth County Port Authority and Leavenworth County Development Corporation have helped expand several existing businesses, secured partnerships that led to new job creation, provided support services to existing businesses, maintained operational efficiency with a small, dedicated staff of three, and continued coordination of regional and state economic strategies.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition opened a smart manufacturing plant in Tonganoxie in 2023, bringing 100 new jobs to the community. While the company experiences a tax abatement incentive, it will pay a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) totaling $1.9 million over the 10-year period. Once the 10 years are complete, the company will pay over $3 million in property taxes each year, the equivalent of 595 private homes paying taxes.

And that’s the power of economic development. When the Leavenworth County Port Authority and Leavenworth County Development Corporation attract new businesses or help businesses to grow, significant tax revenue is generated, which helps to pay for important services like police and fire, schools, libraries, and more. As a result, individual homeowners carry less of the tax burden.