Topeka ? Tax receipts from bioscience companies in Kansas are booming.

“The bioscience sector is growing faster than the regular economy, thus presenting opportunities for the state,” Clay Blair, chairman of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, said Tuesday.

In 2004, the Legislature approved a law that captures the growth in withholding taxes from bioscience companies and funnels that back into investments and incentives to increase bioscience development.

The Bioscience Authority doles out those funds.

When the law was passed, state officials estimated the authority would receive $7.2 million in both the current fiscal year and the next one, which starts July 1.

When state officials recently readjusted tax revenue figures, they had to significantly increase transfers to the authority.

Those estimates have been re-calculated to $19.9 million in the current fiscal year – nearly triple the original estimate – and $15 million in the next one – more than double the original estimate.

Blair said the revised figures prove the state had vision in recognizing “that biosciences is an emerging growth industry.”

Richard Cram, director of policy and research for the Kansas Department of Revenue, said the increased figures indicate an increase in income tax receipts from the bioscience companies plus a move last year by the Legislature to expand the definition of bioscience companies to hospitals.

“That added a large amount to the base of bioscience companies, and probably the growth in wages,” Cram said.