Wichita ? Gov. Sam Brownback and his top officials came to Wichita Monday to ask what the state needs to do to keep and expand this city’s role as the “aviation capital of the world.” They left with an earful of suggestions from key industry leaders.

“We all have an idea of what the answer is, but you guys are the ones who know what the answer to that question is,” Brownback told about 160 people who gathered for the governor’s first economic summit focusing on the aircraft industry.

Executives of the city’s major aircraft manufacturing facilities, their parts suppliers and the aviation service industry repeatedly at their turn urged the governor to support workforce training programs, such as the National Center for Aviation Training. Several cited the need for economic development incentives. Others called for a stable tax environment and business friendly regulatory structure.

“Unnecessary regulation or overzealous enforcement increases our costs and makes us less competitive,” said Jeff Turner, chief executive officer at Spirit AeroSystems.

Turner said not a week goes by when his company is not approached by other states or countries offering significant incentives to relocate.

“They want our jobs,” Turner said.

Wichita is one of five aviation industry clusters in the world, said David Coleal, vice president and general manager of Bombardier Learjet in Wichita. He said every aviation job created in the community generates 3.6 jobs in other sectors.

Coleal urged state officials to strengthen partnerships with the aviation industry and to be ambassadors for the industry. He also called for funding the universities, particularly engineering programs.

Among Coleal’s suggestions was that Wichita keep its commercial air fares low, saying it says a lot for the city if people can get direct flights into the city rather than have multiple connections. He also extoled Kansas parts suppliers to diversify their customer base outside Kansas. Economic development initiatives also play a role in keeping aircraft businesses.

“We are not looking for a handout, but tax policies are important to our business,” Coleal said.

Turner noted that his company last year purchased did business with 400 suppliers and spent $360 million on goods and services.

Some parts suppliers urged the state to be more aggressive in attracting parts suppliers to Kansas. One such proposal floated at the summit would create state tax incentives for aircraft manufacturers to buy from Kansas suppliers, rather than buy them from cheaper overseas suppliers.

That prompted Cessna Chief Executive Jack Pelton to suggest a zero corporate income tax for aircraft companies that spend their money in Kansas.

But among those in the audience was Debbie Logsdon, chairman of the Midwest council of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aviation, who questioned who then would be paying all the taxes to support the schools or to maintain roads. She urged the governor to consider that shifting the tax burden to retirees and employees would drive people out of Kansas.

Brownback responded that the gain would be in keeping the economy growing.

Turner also suggested the state “staple a green card” to every diploma that would allow foreign engineering graduates to stay and work in the United States.

“Many of them would stay and work for us, but they can’t and they go home,” Turner said. “My impression is the higher the level (of education) the more the concentration of non-U.S. students. We need engineering and we are going global to get it.”

That perception was backed up by Zulma Toro-Ramos, dean of Wichita State University’s College of Engineering. She told the group that while 80 percent of the undergraduate engineering degrees that are awarded go to domestic students, but 75 percent of the master’s degrees in engineering and 80 percent of the doctorate degrees in engineering are awarded to foreign students.

Ronald Barrett-Gonzalez, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Kansas, told the group that the school’s top design student was a foreign student who did not get a job in the United States because companies did not want to jump through all the hoops they would need to go through to hire him.