By Gene Meyer
January 22, 2010

(KansasReporter) TOPEKA, Kan.- The economies of main street Kansas and 10 other states continued to decline, but more slowly, in January, a new economic survey reports.

The Rural Main Street Index, based on a survey of bank executives in nonurban, agriculturally dependent communities in 11 Midwestern states, increased 0.1 point on a 100-point scale to 41, reported the index's creators, Creighton University economist Ernie Goss and Bill McQuillan, chief executive of CNB Community Bank in Greeley, Neb.

Kansas' index values for January remained unchanged from December at 39. Main street economies in the Sunflower state were torn between a Midwestern wide drop in bank loan volume and modestly higher prospects for farm land values.

"Commodity prices and farm income have been one of the few bright spots in our local economy for the past year," Frank Sullentrop, president of Legacy Bank in Colwich, Kan., said in commentary released with the report.

Even so, the index for both Kansas and the region remains below 50, or the midpoint at which rural and small town economies are neither growing or shrinking, for what is now 23 consecutive months. Only North Dakota among the 11 states surveyed registered sentiments higher than the midpoint, and those slipped in January to 52.1 from a month earlier 52.2.

"The uncertainty surrounding legislative changes coming from Washington combined with economic weakness among Mainstreet businesses linked to the farming sector appear to be weighing on the rural, agriculturally dependent economy," said Goss, the Creighton economist.

The report also showed that despite federal encouragement to increase lending, loan volume indexes for the 11-state region dropped to a record low 33.4 in January, from 45.7 in December and the previous record low 38.3.

The other states in the monthly survey include Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.