Welcome to the 2026 Kansas Legislative Session. This is the second year of the biennium, so bills and resolutions from the 2025 Session do carry over to the 2026 Session. Bill numbers also carry over, meaning they do not start over at 1 (Senate) or 2001 (House). It also means that legislation that was “dead” last year is “alive” and does not need to be reintroduced this year during the legislative session to be debated and considered. Only bills and resolutions that passed or were vetoed last year are not active.

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

Bills We Are Watching

HB 2712 would remove the need for counties to get legislative approval to place a sales tax question on the ballot. The bill would also require that countywide sales taxes would sunset after ten years and give counties the ability to raise up to 2% for special purposes and 1% for general purposes. KAC supports this bill, as it would eliminate the need for county officials to request permission from the legislature to have a sales tax ballot question, while maintaining the ability of the public to approve or deny the ballot question itself. The bill is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, February 25 at 3:30 pm.

HB 2745 would create a $60M fund to distribute to counties and cities that stay under a specific threshold and eliminate the technical aspects of the Revenue Neutral Rate notice and hearing. The bill has changed from requiring mandatory elections to a petition process for exceeding property tax revenue cap. On Tuesday, the Committee on Taxation recommended the bill be passed as amended, and we expect this to be voted upon next week.

HB 2613, which would allow funds from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund to be used to pay for medical screenings for sexual assault was heard this week. It passed out of committee without amendment. KAC is supportive of this bill as introduced, and it passed in the House 112-4 on Thursday.

HB 2457, which would remove the property tax exemption for medical service providers that are competing with non-exempt entities, was also heard this week. It creates several problems for hospitals and safety net clinics. There has been no action on this bill since Monday, February 9. If your county relies on non-profit providers for medical services and safety net clinics, you should be in contact with your House member about what this bill would mean to your county. KAC opposes this bill.

SB 436, which would increase the threshold on contracts that must be bid, and for when a surety bond is required from $25,000 to $100,000 was voted upon in the Senate and did not pass (12-26). This change would have given counties more flexibility, as well as raising the limit on when surety bonds were required.

SB 462, which will significantly limit the ability to file and receive awards for public nuisance claims, passed in the Senate 29-11. HB 2593, which would require local governments to get approval to enter into contingency fee contracts for legal services, passed in the House 77-45. KAC opposed both bills.

HB 2385, which would allow counties to vote to apply an earnings tax, hasn’t had any action since the hearing on Monday, February 9, 2026 in House Tax. KAC is supportive of giving counties an additional revenue stream, though an earnings tax may not be the ultimate path.

HB 2575, which would eliminate property taxes for personal vehicles but still require that those vehicles receive a registration sticker each year. This means that counties would lose the revenue from motor vehicle registration but would still be required to register vehicles. KAC is opposing this bill, and it had a hearing on Monday.

HB 2452, which would eliminate odd-year municipal elections, has been stricken from the calendar and was not blessed. Although the bill may be dead, we could see the content resurface on another bill in the future.

What’s Coming Next Week

The session will resume on Tuesday, February 24, 2026.

Additional Resources

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube at KsLegislature.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View/Download PDF

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

What Happened This Week

The week before Turnaround always has surprises. The pressure is on committees to get hearings done and get bills worked so they can go to the floor before Turnaround. That means a full week of activity. There is also pressure to get non-exempt bills across the floor in their chamber of origin to avoid having a bill die, or get it blessed by leadership by being sent to an exempt committee.

With the way leadership has structured the session, there is rumor that they do not intend to bless many bills, so we could see a lot of bills die at the end of the week if they do not make it to the other chamber.

HB 2712 would remove the need for counties to get legislative approval to place a sales tax question on the ballot. The bill would also require that countywide sales taxes would sunset after ten years and give counties the ability to raise up to 2% for special purposes and 1% for general purposes. KAC supports this bill, as it would eliminate the need for county officials to request permission from the legislature to have a sales tax ballot question, while maintaining the ability of the public to approve or deny the ballot question itself. The bill will likely be worked on Monday, with the expectation that it will pass out to the House floor.

HB 2745 would create a $60M fund to distribute to counties that stay under a specific threshold, require a popular vote to exceed that threshold, and eliminate the technical aspects of the Revenue Neutral Rate notice and hearing. There are some issues that were raised during the hearing, mostly centering around the election portion of the bill. Amendments are being prepared to address concerns. If you have a legislator on the House Tax committee, you should be in contact with them about this bill and how it would impact your practical operations as this bill will likely be worked in committee on Monday, also, with the expectation that it too will pass out of committee.

HB 2613, which would allow funds from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund to be used to pay for medical screenings for sexual assault was heard this week. It passed out of committee without amendment. KAC is supportive of this bill as introduced.

HB 2457, which would remove the property tax exemption for medical service providers that are competing with non-exempt entities, was also heard this week. It creates several problems for hospitals and safety net clinics. It may still get worked. If your county relies on non-profit providers for medical services and safety net clinics, you should be in contact with your House member about what this bill would mean to your county. KAC opposes this bill.

SB 436, which would increase the threshold on contracts that must be bid, and for when a surety bond is required from $25,000 to $100,000 was heard this week. This change is long overdue to give counties more flexibility, as well as raising the limit on when surety bonds are required.

SB 462, which would significantly limit the ability to file and receive awards for public nuisance claims,  and HB 2593, which would require local governments to get approval to enter into contingency fee contracts for legal services, were both heard on Tuesday. KAC opposes both of these bills as limitations on county ability to pursue legal relief. It is unclear what the fate of these bills is. County counselors should be in contact with legislators on how these bills could damage a county’s ability to recover legal damages.

KAC spoke neutrally on SB 124, which deals with unilateral annexation, a couple of weeks ago. The Senate is now supportive of having an interim committee dealing with annexation and extraterritorial jurisdiction. This probably means that SB 124 will not move forward this year.

The hearing on HB 2385, which would allow counties to vote to apply an earnings tax, finally happened on Monday, February 9, 2026 in House Tax. KAC is supportive of giving counties an additional revenue stream, though an earnings tax may not be the ultimate path.

What’s Coming Next Week

Keep an eye on HB 2575. This bill would eliminate the property taxes for personal vehicles. However, the bill would still require that these vehicles receive a registration sticker each year, meaning that counties would lose the revenue from motor vehicle registration, but still be required to register vehicles. KAC is opposing this bill. The hearing is Monday, February 16 in House Transportation at 1:30 PM.

Much of the week will be spent on the respective chamber floors debating various bills. Floor action is always unpredictable, so watch for amendments that change the character of bills as they are moving.

Finally, this is my final KAC legislative update. It has been a true privilege to work with you all through my time at KAC. Remain county strong.

Additional Resources

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube at KsLegislature.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View/Download the PDF

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

What Happened This Week

With just a couple of weeks until Turnaround Day, momentum for the session is starting to really pick up. There is always a time crunch as Turnaround approaches. Legislative deadlines, like the last day to introduce bills in non-exempt committees, are upon us. That means a scramble by legislators to get bills introduced. Most of these bills will not actually move forward. This is largely just an attempt to get things introduced to satisfy constituents at home

There was a lot of interest in land use this week. Zoning has become a hot topic, with some zeroing in on zoning regulations as a possible culprit in housing prices. While that is largely not the case, we saw legislation like SB 418 get a hearing this week, which would allow housing to be built anywhere, regardless of zoning. This type of legislation could prove even more problematic as housing could end up in undesirable locations, which may not contribute to useful housing stock.

KAC spoke neutrally on SB 124, which deals with unilateral annexation. It is unclear if this bill will move forward. There is a grassroots effort to deal with extraterritorial jurisdiction, which SB 124 does not address. However, many are confusing those two issues, which may boost this legislation. KAC did propose amendments to this bill which would formalize the county role in unilateral annexations. Again, SB 124 does not address extraterritorial jurisdiction, which is a separate issue that requires more study.

Utilizing a similar method as they did to pass SB 244, the legislature passed SB 254, which prohibits those not in the country legally from receiving government benefits. KAC has been concerned about how this will be enforced and what steps local government will be required to take. The original intent of the bill was focused on Medicaid, SNAP and other benefits like that. An amendment made it clear that some individuals would qualify for in-state tuition under some circumstances. This now advances to the governor.

SB 394, which would make changes to the language required on advance ballot envelopes was heard in Senate Federal and State affairs. This bill was requested by the Secretary of State. KAC is monitoring this bill to make sure it is not amended to include other unrelated election legislation.

HB 2470, which would allow a municipality (including counties) under 10,000 in population to designate their entire municipality as a neighborhood revitalization area, had its hearing in House Tax. This bill could benefit counties by making it clear that the entire unincorporated area, or an entire city or county could be named a neighborhood revitalization area.

Senate Tax had a few bills of interest. SB 329, which would require a single appraisal report (as opposed to a mass appraisal), was heard on Tuesday. This would increase the workload on tax appeals for county appraisers. SB 320, which is similar to HB 2406 regarding the CIME exemption, has the support of KAC in the name of equity, though the impact of the tax shift is evident from the previous CIME legislation in 2006.

The hearing on HB 2385, which would allow counties to vote to apply an earnings tax, was rescheduled for Monday, February 9, 2026 in House Tax.

What’s Coming Next Week

Late Friday, House Tax added to important bills to its calendar.

HB 2712 would remove the need for counties to get legislative approval to place a sales tax question on the ballot. The bill would also require that countywide sales taxes would sunset after ten years and give counties the ability to raise up to 2% for special purposes and 1% for general purposes. HB 2712 will be heard in House Tax on Tuesday, February 10 at 3:30 PM.

HB 2745 would create a $60M fund to distribute to counties that stay under a specific threshold, require a popular vote to exceed that threshold, and eliminate the technical aspects of the Revenue Neutral Rate notice and hearing. HB 2745 will be heard in House Tax on Thursday, February 12 at 3:30 PM.

Other bills and hearings of note:

• HB 2613, which would allow funds from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund to be used to pay for medical screenings for sexual assault, will be heard in House Judiciary on Monday, February 9 at 3:30 PM.
• HB 2457, which would remove the property tax exemption for medical service providers that are competing with non-exempt entities, will be heard on Monday, February 9 at 3:30 PM in House Tax.
• SB 436, which would increase the threshold on contracts that must be bid, and for when a surety bond is required from $25,000 to $100,000 will be heard in Senate Local Government on Tuesday, February 10 at 3:30 PM.
• SB 462, which would significantly limit the ability to file and receive awards for public nuisance claims, will be heard in Senate Judiciary at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, February 10.
• HB 2593, which would require local governments to get approval to enter into contingency fee contracts for legal services, will be heard in House Judiciary on Tuesday, February 10 at 3:30 PM.
• KAC and LKM will be doing a presentation on Local Government revenue sources on Wednesday, February 11 at 9:30 AM.
• SB 465, which would add LLPs to the list of entities needing county commission approval to operate a dairy or swine facility, will be heard on Thursday, February 12 at 8:30 in Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The weekly schedule is still very fluid, so it is doubtful that this is a full list of important hearings next week. Bills are still being drafted or assigned to committees, so they could be added. Additionally, some things may be removed from the calendar at the discretion of the chair or leadership.

Additional Resources

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube at KsLegislature.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View/Download as PDF

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

What Happened This Week

Through the first few weeks in the legislative session, the activity has mainly been around three things – taxes, elections, and the budget.

The legislature had an extended debate on the Substitute for SB 244 this, which is the gender marker and bathroom bill. That bill now heads to the governor’s desk. Regardless of your opinion on the bill, it has a veto-proof majority (87 votes in the House, 30 in the Senate) and is almost sure to become law. The impact to counties is that it will require every bathroom in a county building to be designated for a single sex, and require that the governing body take “every reasonable step” to ensure that an individual not enter spaces designated for the opposite sex. The governing body is also responsible for investigating these complaints. It is unclear what “reasonable steps” are or how a governing body would investigate such complaints. Counties should be aware of this and make plans internally to comply with these requirements.

Turning back to taxes, the commercial and industrial machinery exemption was revisted in HB 2406. Under current law, any commercial or industrial machinery purchased after June 30, 2006 is exempt from tax, but machinery purchased before that is taxable. HB 2406 would make this equitable by exempting all commercial and industrial machinery. KAC took the stance that the damage of the commercial and industrial machinery exemption has already been done. That is not to say there is no impact. The imbalance of taxing pre-2006 property but not taxing newer property is an issue of equity.

The bills prohibiting speech on ballot questions and constitutional amendments, SB 314 and HB 2451 are worth watching. These bills could potentially create First Amendment issues for county employees and elected officials if the state restricts their rights to speak on ballot questions or constitutional amendments. County officials should be talking to their legislators about their concerns on this legislation.

Additionally, if you have a legislator that is a member of the local government caucus, which is made up of individuals that either have held elected office or been employed by a city, county or township, encourage them to participate in the caucus. There will be educational opportunities through the caucus to discuss issues impacting county government. The caucus had its first meeting this week to discuss upcoming legislation.

What’s Coming Next Week

• The Senate Federal and State affairs Committee will hear SB 394 on Monday, February 2 at 3:30 PM. The bill will make changes to the language required on advance ballot envelopes. The bill was requested by the Secretary of State.
• HB 2470, which would allow a municipality (including counties) under 10,000 in population to designate their entire municipality as a neighborhood revitalization area, will be heard in House Tax on Monday, February 2, at 3:30 PM. KAC supports this bill because of local control.
• House Elections with hear HB 2503, which would eliminate mail ballot elections, on Tuesday, February 2, at 3:30. KAC is opposing this bill, as it would require even smaller budget taxing districts to hold in person elections for ballot questions.
• SB 329, which would require a single appraisal report (as opposed to a mass appraisal) will be heard in Senate Assessment and Taxation on Tuesday, February 3 at 9:30 AM
• SB 418, which would create the by-right housing development act, will be heard in Senate Commerce on Tuesday, February 3 at 1:30 PM. KAC is opposing this bill.
• SB 124, which deals with unilateral annexation, will be heard in Senate Local Government, Transparency and Ethics on Tuesday, February 3 at 9:30 AM. While KAC is neutral on this bill, we have requested amendments to give Kansas counties a more formal role in unilateral annexation, consistent with the KAC legislative policy.
• HB 2410, which would allow libraries to leave their regional systems, will be heard in House Local Government at 9:00 on Wednesday, February 4. This bill is supported by member counties.
• SB 320, which is similar to HB 2406 regarding the CIME exemption, will be heard in Senate Assessment and Taxation on Wednesday, February 4 at 9:30. KAC is supporting this bill because it brings equity to the CIME exemption. As stated on the House side, the fiscal damage has largely been done regarding CIME already.
• A late addition to the schedule, HB 2385, which would allow counties to vote to apply an earnings tax, is scheduled for a hearing in House Taxation on Thursday, February 5 at 3:30 PM.

The weekly schedule is still very fluid, so it is doubtful that this is a full list of important hearings next week. Bills are still being drafted or assigned to committees, so they could be added. Additionally, some things may be removed from the calendar at the discretion of the chair or leadership.

Additional Resources

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube at KsLegislature.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View or Download the PDF

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

What Happened This Week

A week into the legislative session the focus is heavily on the budget. As you may remember from last year, the legislature has taken to adopting its own budget as opposed to working from the Governor’s recommendations. As a result, the budget presentations must have more depth so that the legislature can recommend its own budget. Last year, this process took more time than was originally anticipated, creating a time crunch as committees scrambled to complete their work.

To mitigate that this year, budget committees are working much earlier to get their work done, which means having hearings throughout the week and even on Friday’s when the chambers are typically pro forma.

Despite that, it still will take a lot of time to go through every budget, which means committee time is being dominated by that, leaving less time to take up other hearings. This means that the first few weeks of committee action have been slow on the policy side of things.
The other subplot to watch is the Revisors office. With so many legislators bringing in bills in the early part of the session, the Revisors office has been swamped with new bill requests. While that should slow down in the next couple of weeks, there may be several bills that get added to the committee calendar late simply because those bills did not have a number yet due to being drafted, but the committee was holding open a hearing slot.

Picking up with something we focused on last week, SCR 1616 was worked in the Senate Assessment and Taxation committee. As a reminder, this legislation is the return of the constitutional amendment to place a cap on valuation increases for residential homes. KAC is neutral on this amendment, as it is difficult to determine what the impact of this legislation could be for counties overall, or for individual counties. In addition, we know that we have members on both sides of the issue, some very much in support, others strongly against. It is very possible that the impacts of this legislation could vary broadly across the state, and even within regions of the state depending on specific economic, social and demographic conditions unique to each county. The Senate committee once again advanced the constitutional amendment to the floor, where it will be debated by the full Senate.

This is a constitutional amendment, so it will need a two thirds majority to advance. That means 27 votes in the Senate and, if that is achieved, 84 votes in the House. While similar legislation passed the Senate last year, it mustered only 38 votes in the House.

Whether you are for or against this proposal your legislative delegation needs to know where your county stands and whether you support or oppose this legislation, as well as why. If you need more information on the details of this legislation, contact our office.

KAC also spoke in opposition this week to a bill that would place limitations on local officials expressing support or opposition for ballot questions and constitutional amendments. While KAC is not opposed to prohibiting the use of public resources to advocate for or against a ballot measure, limiting the free speech of elected officials and employees is something that KAC cannot support. A similar bill (SB 314) will be heard in the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee this week.

KAC also presented opponent testimony on SB 319, which would require counties to rebate the difference in property taxes that result if a residential or commercial property were to sell for less than 97% of the appraised value. It is important for legislators to understand that this would be a property tax shift from one taxpayer to another, rather than a property tax cut for taxpayers in general.

KAC also testified in support of a sales tax question for Labette County in SB 303. This bill may have a sales tax provision for Leavenworth County added to it. Separately, a bill will be introduced to eliminate the need for counties to come to the legislature to request additional sales tax authority. That bill will come from the House side. It does not have a bill number yet.

What’s Coming Next Week

• House Elections will hear HB 2447, a bill on Presidential Preference Primaries in 2028 and onward on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 3:30 PM.
  
  
• House Taxation will hear two bills on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 3:30 PM that are of interest to counties. HB 2408 is in regard to county recognized community land trusts. HB 2406 is regarding the commercial and industrial equipment tax exemption. This would extend the exemption to all equipment purchased prior to 2006.
  
  
• Senate Federal and State Affairs will hear a bill similar to HB 2451. SB 314 also presents a prohibition on use of public resources to advocate for or against ballot questions and constitutional amendments. It will be heard on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 10:30 AM.
  
  
• House Local Government will hear HB 2433, which deals with county authority for the transfer or appropriation of water rights at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.

The weekly schedule is still very much being developed, so it is doubtful that this is a full list of important hearings next week. There are several meetings that are on the call of the chair, so those spots could be filled if bills are drafted and assigned.

Additional Resources

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube at KsLegislature.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View or download the PDF

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit https://kansascounties.org/page/AdvocacyOverview.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2025 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights.

What Happened This Week

The 2026 Legislative Session again kicks off with strong Republican super majorities in both chambers. These super majorities are called that because the Republicans have enough members in each chamber to override any veto by the governor if all of or almost all of their members vote to override. In the House, a veto override requires 84 votes. There are 88 Republicans in the House, more than enough to reach the 84 required votes. Similarly in the Senate, the 31 Republicans are more than enough to get the 27 necessary votes to override a veto if the Republican caucus votes together.

There are a handful of new legislators this year as a result of resignations that happened after the legislature adjourned last spring. In the Senate, Scott Hill replaces JR Claeys in District 24 and Silas Miller replaces Mary Ware in District 25. In the House, Patrick Penn was replaced by Steve Brunk in District 85. Silas Miller, who went to the Senate, was replaced by Abi Boatman in District 86. Rep. Mike Thompson was replaced by Carolyn Caiharr. Carrie Barth was replaced by Courtney Sappington. Scott Hill, who went to the Senate, was replaced by Greg Wilson.

If you have new legislators in your delegation, it is important for you to reach out to them and talk to them about the issues that are important to you as a county.

Turning to legislation, SCR 1616 had a hearing this week in the Senate Assessment and Taxation committee. This legislation should look familiar, as it is the return of the constitutional amendment to place a cap on valuation increases for residential homes. KAC is neutral on this amendment, as it is difficult to determine what the impact of this legislation could be for counties overall, or for individual counties. It is very possible that the impacts of this legislation could vary broadly across the state, and even within regions of the state depending on specific economic, social and demographic conditions unique to each county. It is notable that this hearing lasted for three days. Similar legislation did not advance in the House last session.

Whether you are for or against this proposal your legislative delegation needs to know where your county stands and whether you support or oppose this legislation, as well as why. If you need more information on the details of this legislation, contact our office.

The other feature of the early part of the session is bill introductions. Similar to last week, dozens of bills have already been introduced. With only 90 calendar days in the session, anything that is not introduced in the next week or two will likely run out of time. There are likely scores of bills still being drafted that will be introduced in the next two weeks or so.

What’s Coming Next Week

• House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development will have a hearing on Home Ownership Issues and Kansas Housing Partners on Tuesday, January 20 at 1:30 PM
• House Elections will have a hearing on moving all elections to even numbered years on Tuesday, January 20 at 3:30 PM
• KPERS will do a presentation in the House Financial Institutions and Pensions committee on Wednesday, January 21 at 9:00 AM
• House Elections will have a hearing on prohibiting state or municipal government resources on Thursday, January 22 at 3:30 PM

The weekly schedule is still very much being developed, so it is doubtful that this is a full list of important hearings next week.

If you have not already done so, SUBSCRIBE to KAC legislative alerts to stay up to date on what is going on.

Additional Resources

For daily information on things happening in the Legislature, follow @KansasCounties and @JayHallKS on Twitter.

You can find information on the Kansas Legislature, such as daily calendars, audio links, and bill text at www.kslegislature.gov.

You can watch or listen to committee proceedings by following the Kansas Legislature on YouTube.

2026 anticipated Legislative deadlines can be found at https://kslegislature.gov/li/ by clicking on 2026 Session Deadlines.

View or Download as a PDF

The bipartisan Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act (H.R.4669) was approved by a vote of 57-3 by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

This is a big moment for counties, and NACo and KAC both encourage you to send your House Representative a letter of support for the legislation. A template letter for county leaders can be found here, and NACo's letter of support can be found here. A full analysis of the bill can be found here.

For questions, reach out to Brett Mattson at bmattson@naco.org.

Some of the key wins in the bill include: 

• Transitioning the Public Assistance Program from a reimbursement to a grant model, with the opportunity for grants to be made directly to counties.
• Streamlining environmental and historic preservation reviews
• Creating a universal disaster application for disaster survivors
• Restructuring of FEMA's pre-disaster mitigation program by moving it to a formula-based grant
• Creating a Public Assistance dashboard that publicly displays information for each major disaster declaration

Read the full March 28 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s March 28 One Big Thing here.

Read the full March 21 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s March 21 One Big Thing here.

Read the full March 14 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s March 14 One Big Thing here.

View the March 7 Legislative Update, including What’s Happened and What's Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s March 7 One Big Thing here.

View the February 28 Legislative Update, including What’s Happened and What's Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s February 28 One Big Thing here.

View the February 21 Legislative Update, including What’s Happened and What's Coming Next Week here. 

Watch Jay’s February 21 One Big Thing here.

View the February 14 Legislative Update, including What’s Happened and What's Coming Next Week here. 

Watch Jay’s February 14 One Big Thing here.

View the February 7 Legislative Update, including What’s Happened and What's Coming Next Week here. 

Watch Jay’s February 7 One Big Thing here.

Read the full January 31 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here. 

Watch Jay’s January 31 One Big Thing here.

January 24 Weekly Legislative Update & One Big Thing

Welcome to the 2025 Kansas Legislative Session. This is the first year of the biennium, so bills and resolutions from the 2024 Session do not carry over to the 2025 Session. Bill numbers do not carry over, meaning they start over at 1 (Senate) or 2001 (House). It also means that legislation that was “dead” last year is gone and must be reintroduced this year during the legislative session to be debated and considered.

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit KAC's Advocacy Overview here.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2024 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights. This includes legislation passed during the 2024 Special Session.

What Happened This Week

First, a big thank you to everyone that attended Local Government Day on Wednesday, January 22. Local Government Day can only be a success with the participation of our members, and Kansas Counties once again showed why county leaders are such an important part of serving the people of Kansas. 

If you have any follow up questions regarding the topics discussed during our training sessions, or during the legislative panel, please feel free to reach out to KAC for more information.

Turning to legislation, SCR 1603 which had a hearing last week in the Senate Assessment and Taxation committee, was moved out of committee this week on a 6-3 vote. This legislation should look familiar, as it is the return of the constitutional amendment to place a cap on valuation increases for residential homes. That cap is now set at 3%, though the language of the resolution would allow the legislature to lower the cap below 3%. KAC is neutral on this amendment, as it is difficult to determine what the impact of this legislation could be for counties overall, or for individual counties.

This constitutional amendment was amended during the committee process to allow that the valuation limits would remain in place whenever the property is transferred to another person or entity, though the legislature could provide for additional exceptions to these limits. This effectively means that if this amendment passes, the valuation limits would stay in place in perpetuity unless there are improvements or other changes to the subject property.   

Whether you are for or against this proposal your legislative delegation needs to know where your county stands and whether you support or oppose this legislation, as well as why. If you need more information on the details of this legislation, contact our office.

SB 11, which would require the State 911 board to establish requirements for CPR training for 911 operators, was heard in Senate Utilities on Tuesday, January 21. The Senate committee may act on this bill at any time.

In overarching news, the word is that the House intends to have their budget process complete by mid-February. As a reminder, the budget process has changed this year from year’s past. Previously, the governor would introduce a budget and the legislature would work from that recommended budget. This year, the legislature is introducing a budget in addition to the governor’s budget. 

As a result, the House Appropriations and Budget committees are conducting budget hearings in rapid succession to have a basis to work from as they develop the legislative budget. That is taking up a lot of time and focus for both legislators and staff. This is a continuing storyline that will be an undercurrent to everything else that happens. Savvy legislative watchers will be keeping an eye on this to see if that starts to bump other hearings and legislation to keep the budget process on track with the 90-calendar day session.

For daily information on things happening in the Legislature, follow @KansasCounties and @JayHallKS on X (Formerly Twitter).

Read the full January 24 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here.

Watch Jay’s January 24 One Big Thing here.

January 17 Weekly Legislative Update & One Big Thing

Welcome to the 2025 Kansas Legislative Session. This is the first year of the biennium, so bills and resolutions from the 2024 Session do not carry over to the 2025 Session. Bill numbers do not carry over, meaning they start over at 1 (Senate) or 2001 (House). It also means that legislation that was “dead” last year is gone and must be reintroduced this year during the legislative session to be debated and considered.

For a review of common legislative terms, legislative districts, committee assignments and other legislative tools, visit KAC's Advocacy Overview here.

Summaries of all legislation passed during the 2024 session can be found at www.klrd.gov under the Publications and Research tab by searching the Summary of Legislation and Legislative Highlights. This includes legislation passed during the 2024 Special Session.

What Happened This Week

The 2025 Legislative Session kicked off with strong Republican super majorities in both chambers. These super majorities are called that because the Republicans have enough members in each chamber to override any veto by the governor if all of their members vote to override. In the House, a veto override requires 84 votes. There are 88 Republicans in the House, more than enough to reach the 84 required votes. Similarly in the Senate, the 31 Republicans are more than enough to get the 27 necessary votes to override a veto if the Republican caucus votes together.

With it also being a new biennium, it is important to look at how many new faces are in the legislature. There are 28 new House members. Some of those “new” members do have legislative experience, but they are considered new because they were not in the chamber during the previous session. In the Senate there are 15 new members. Again, several of these individuals have previous experience in the legislature, but they were not in the Senate during the previous biennium.

If you have new legislators in your delegation, it is important for you to reach out to them and talk to them about the issues that are important to you as a county. 

Turning to legislation, SCR 1603 had a hearing this week in the Senate Assessment and Taxation committee. This legislation should look familiar, as it is the return of the constitutional amendment to place a cap on valuation increases for residential homes. KAC is neutral on this amendment, as it is difficult to determine what the impact of this legislation could be for counties overall, or for individual counties. It is very possible that the impacts of this legislation could vary broadly across the state, and even within regions of the state depending on specific economic, social and demographic conditions unique to each county. 

Whether you are for or against this proposal your legislative delegation needs to know where your county stands and whether you support or oppose this legislation, as well as why. If you need more information on the details of this legislation, contact our offices.

Being early in the new biennium, most of the committee meetings this week were presentations and overviews from various groups. KAC had the privilege of appearing before the Senate Local Government, Transparency and Ethics Committee this week to give an overview of our organization, as well as our organizational priorities. This gave us an opportunity to highlight to the committee the principle of local control, as well as our priorities this session 1) Making public notices more accessible, 2) Decreasing the reliance of county government on property tax to supplement state services like vehicle registration, 3) Continually rising costs, such as insurance and goods that counties need to provide services, and 4) Aging infrastructure that is more expensive to maintain.

KAC will give a similar overview to the House Local Government Committee on January 27. 

The other feature of the early part of the session is bill introductions. 39 bills have already been introduced in the first week in the Senate, with another 28 introduced in the House. There are likely scores of bills still being drafted that will be introduced in the next two weeks or so.

For daily information on things happening in the Legislature, follow @KansasCounties and @JayHallKS on X (Formerly Twitter).

Read the full January 17 Legislative Update, including What’s Coming Next Week here. 

Watch Jay’s January 17 One Big Thing here.