Former revenue secretary during Brownback tax cuts to leave administration

Another member of Gov. Sam Brownback’s Cabinet is hitting the road.

Nick Jordan, the interim secretary of commerce, is resigning Jan. 5, Brownback’s office announced Friday.

Jordan, a former state senator from Johnson County, previously served as secretary of revenue during a tumultuous time in the Brownback administration.

“Nick is a team player and I’m grateful for the time he’s devoted to serving our fellow Kansans,” Brownback said in a statement.

As revenue secretary, Jordan often was the public face of the state’s failure to meet revenue projections as criticism of Brownback’s tax cuts mounted during the governor’s second term.

Those tax cuts slashed income tax rates and created an income tax exemption for the owners of limited liability companies and other pass-through businesses.

The GOP-dominated Kansas Legislature rolled the tax cuts back earlier this year by passing a tax increase estimated to bring in roughly $1.2 billion to Kansas over a two-year span.

Sen. Tom Holland, a Baldwin City Democrat, wished Jordan well but was critical of his work within the Brownback administration.

“The one thing I (did find) disappointing about Secretary Jordan’s tenure at Revenue was the fact that despite the month after month of revenue numbers and job statistics that showed the experiment wasn’t working, he still touted the Brownback line that it was,” Holland said.

Jordan joined the administration as secretary of revenue during the start of Brownback’s tenure as governor in 2011. In December 2016, he was chosen to head the Governor’s Economic Advisory Council, and in June he was announced as the interim commerce secretary.

“I want to thank Governor Brownback for the opportunities he has given me to serve,” Jordan said in a statement. “It was an honor to serve our fellow Kansans and to work with a team of dedicated professionals.”

He took over at the Commerce Department after Antonio Soave left the agency.

A Star investigation subsequently identified at least nine of Soave’s friends or business partners who had landed state contracts for consulting and marketing services during his 18 months as secretary. The report also revealed that after Soave left Brownback’s Cabinet, he was hired by a charity founded by the owner of a business that had secured a contract from Soave’s agency worth more than $300,000.

Soave later lost his position with the One Heart Project charity, which serves at-risk youth, shortly after The Star asked questions about his hiring.

After weeks of denial about how Soave left the agency, Brownback’s office admitted that the governor had terminated him.

Commerce Department chief legal counsel Bob North will be the interim commerce secretary, according to Brownback’s office.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Former revenue secretary during Brownback tax cuts to leave administration."