On Monday, Gov. Sam Brownback plans to travel around the state to hold four ceremonial signings of legislation he strongly supported this year.

The bill will declare 50 Kansas counties as “rural opportunity zones.” Most of those counties have seen their populations drop by more than 10 percent in the last decade, and the bill offers some financial incentives to try to reverse that trend.

People who move to some of those counties from another state wouldn’t have to pay Kansas income taxes from 2012 to 2016. The bill also authorizes counties to tap into state matching funds to help new residents repay up to $15,000 in student loans.

Any effort to try to shore up the declining population in rural areas of Kansas is welcome, but it’s hard to imagine that this tax break will be enough to overcome the other economic factors at work in these Kansas counties.

It’s nice not to have to pay state income tax, but it only matters if you have an income. As the agriculture economy changes, the lack of business and industry to provide decent jobs in many of these counties has been a big factor in their loss of population. For better or worse, in many of those counties, the government has been one of the biggest employers, but many of those jobs are being cut back.

There is no small amount of irony in the fact that, at the same time “rural opportunity zones” are being created, other legislative actions are working against many rural communities. Continued reductions in school funding, for instance, will force many small school districts to consider consolidation moves that may close the only remaining schools in some small towns. The loss of those schools not only reduces the number of teaching jobs but is a huge factor in the quality of life that could help attract new residents — with or without a tax exemption.

Another quality of life issue is the governor’s effort to replace the Kansas Arts Commission with a private foundation. The Senate overrode his executive order to abolish the commission but Brownback still could — and some observers believe he will — use his line-item veto to remove any funding for the arts commission from the state budget. Without that funding, and the federal funding it would leverage for the state, many rural communities will have no way to support arts endeavors that would contribute to the quality of life that would help keep new residents in those communities after their income tax exemptions run out.

The “rural opportunity” bill provides a small, but concrete, benefit to people who choose to relocate. Perhaps the “rural opportunity” bill will attract a few entrepreneurs who will help create new jobs and bring new vitality to some communities. We hope so. The reality is, however, that the benefits of this bill probably will only scratch the surface of helping rural Kansas overcome its current economic and population challenges.