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07 February 2025 | Early Learning Education Economic Security Health Tax and Budget

2025 Statehouse Snapshot: Week 4

Photo Courtesy of the Office of the Governor

Kansas Action for Children | February 7, 2025

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Gathering in Topeka to Celebrate Early Childhood

Around 100 advocates, providers, and early childhood professionals braved the freezing rain on Wednesday for the 2025 Early Childhood Advocacy Day.

Throughout the day, attendees met with at least 56 lawmakers – from all across the state! – to share their stories and experiences about early learning and child care. Thanks to attendees’ efforts, we know many more lawmakers ended the day with a greater understanding of what Kansans need to maximize children’s earliest years.

Attendees also heard from professionals about findings from the child care workforce study, the child care subsidy program, and state agency leaders about their roles and contributions to the early childhood system.

The Legislature, the Governor, and Congresswoman Sharice Davids all recognized early childhood efforts throughout the day. The House (HR 6006) and Senate (SR 1708) introduced official resolutions observing the hard work of thousands who are shaping the next generation of Kansans, while the Governor closed out Advocacy Day after a brief video prepared by Congresswoman Davids.

Thanks to all who made the day a roaring success – we can’t wait to see you at next year’s event!

Bipartisan Early Childhood Proposal

Bills about early childhood and child care have begun to take shape. The bipartisan early childhood proposal revives the effort to streamline the services families depend upon for their children. SB 132 and HB 2294 (identical bills) hope to bring efficiency and reduce government red tape by consolidating early childhood programs currently in different state agencies into the Office of Early Childhood.

Another proposal (SB 207) seeks to improve operation for child care providers. Attempting to address rising operating costs for child care facilities, the bill improves reimbursements for food costs, offers access to telehealth services, and eliminates costs for initial training courses required to enter the child care workforce. These measures go a long way toward improving the quality experiences for our youngest Kansans. We hope lawmakers will continue to work together to make the early childhood governance system more efficient and keep kids safe.

Anti-Public Health Bills in Senate Health; COGE Adding Red Tape

Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor

The House Health Committee heard from KAC and partner organizations about the state of Kansas children’s health. This included factors that influence kids’ health, Medicaid and CHIP coverage, care coordination for family health, tackling stillbirth and infant mortality in Kansas, and pediatricians’ role in child health. Gaining a wider understanding on children’s health is helpful in creating policy that considers where Kansas kids are at and what’s truly needed to improve outcomes.

For the fifth year in a row, the Senate Health Committee held hearings on troubling immunization and public health bills (SB 19 and SB 29). KAC provided opponent testimony for both, reminding lawmakers of the societal costs of disease outbreaks like measles. The Committee could work on these bills as soon as Monday, so if they concern you like they do us, make sure to let your senator know!

Also in the Senate, the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency’s focus is finally clear based on several bills and presentations. Unfortunately, much of the Committee’s pursuit of “government efficiency” includes attacking public assistance programs and beneficiaries, making these programs more difficult to serve the needs of the most vulnerable and low-income Kansas families.

The Medicaid Inspector General recently presented to the Committee, making comments about beneficiaries and potential fraud without providing any data about how often these cases actually happen among 400,000 KanCare members. Committee members were very interested in his ideas for strengthening fraud investigation authority for his office and audit power over the medical assistance program. While we don’t disagree that fraud should be investigated, we remain deeply concerned with the implication that scores of KanCare participants are scheming to misuse funds.

This Committee and the House Welfare Reform Committee are also setting their sights on technical, complicated KanCare oversight authority. For instance, SB 151 seeks to repeal a waiver that includes a provision allowing continuous Medicaid coverage for extremely low-income parents of children. On Tuesday, COGE will hear SB 161 (restricting public assistance waiver and other changes without legislative action), while Welfare Reform will hear HB 2240 (restricting Medicaid waiver and other changes without legislative action).

Photo taken from the Legislature's YouTube stream

Property Tax, Renters, and Child Tax Credits

The Senate finally voted on SCR 1603 (placing a constitutional amendment capping property valuations on the ballot) this week, with a final vote of 28-11. The California-style property valuation cap was further removed from economic reality by a floor amendment that added a provision to roll property values back to their 2022 levels. More than simply disregarding two years of market activity, this amendment ensures that voters would expect substantial property tax relief if SCR 1603 is approved by voters.

If adopted, local taxing authorities would be forced to substantially raise mill levies in order to continue funding the services that Kansans rely on. While this resolution is likely dead on arrival in the House, this is worth keeping an eye on.

In other news, the House Tax Committee had a hearing on HB 2074, which would reinstate renters as eligible to participate in the Homestead Property Tax Refund Program. As we have before, KAC offered testimony in strong support of this legislation, which would right a wrong from more than a decade ago. Given that renters experience poverty at more than three times the rate of homeowners, it is long past time to include them in the tax relief conversation.

Other proposals to provide targeted relief through state child tax credits were introduced in the House and Senate. On the House side, HB 2210 and HB 2232 offered different approaches to a much-need policy win for Kansas families. Our bill (HB 2210) would establish a credit based on a sliding scale, with those in the lowest income bracket seeing the largest credit. This is the same approach taken on the Senate side through SB 179. With bipartisan support of the Senate, this could be the year Kansas finally gets a child tax credit!

Photo taken from the Legislature's YouTube stream

Consideration Given to Eliminate Successful Housing Program

The House Committee on Commerce, Labor, and Economic Development heard testimony on HB 2119, which would eliminate the Affordable Housing Tax Credit (AHTC) that the Legislature passed in 2022. The AHTC provides financing to housing developers to build housing units that will remain affordable to low-income Kansans for 30 years. Kansas has an estimated shortage of 52,340 rental units that are affordable to extremely low-income renters, and the AHTC provides a sizeable amount of money to address the shortage. Since its implementation in 2023, thousands of new units have already been built.

This bill was met with strong opposition and no support. According to the committee Chair, they received testimony from 39 opponents and zero supporters. During the hearing, housing developers and other conferees argued that we will see an 87% reduction in new homes being built if the AHTC is repealed. KAC testified that the lack of affordable housing is one of the factors for the 395% increase in homelessness across Kansas between 2019 and 2024.

The high level of opposition and lack of support for HB 2119 makes it clear there is no appetite among Kansans to repeal the AHTC, and we are hopeful the state will continue this historic investment toward addressing the housing affordability crisis.

Photo taken from the Legislature's YouTube stream

Budget Continues Its Work

The House Appropriations Committee continued their work digging into several agency budgets presented to them from the appropriate subcommittees. Sadly, many things didn’t make it into the Committee’s vision for the budget, but there are a few budget lines to celebrate.

Key items of note include:

  • Within the budget for the Department for Children and Families, the Committee included $925,000 to draw down $32 million in federal benefits for the Summer EBT program. If you remember, this program provides $40 per month during the summer for eligible children, especially those enrolled in the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program.

  • Within the budget for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, several items remain:
    • Budget provisos dealing with the Children’s Health Insurance Program, newborn screening, and local department funding formula.
    • Medicaid reimbursement rate increases for dental and child sick visits.

Also, you might have heard in the news that Kansas lawmakers included $2 million to cover children in the Reduced-Price Category for school meals. While the subcommittee adopted that budget item, the House Appropriations Committee did not approve that addition, meaning it’s not moving forward. It’s possible it could get added back in via an amendment or through conference committee though if they change their minds. Contact your lawmakers if it’s something you are passionate about.

What to Expect in Week 5

With lots of legislative deadlines passing and approaching, everyone is racing around the Statehouse to elevate their priorities. Our bill testimony journey continues:

  • On Monday in House Health, we’ll provide opponent testimony on HB 2217, which would expand the Medicaid Inspector General’s authority to investigate “fraud” among SNAP, child care assistance, and cash assistance recipients.

  • On Tuesday:
    • In the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency, we’ll provide opponent testimony on SB 161, regarding restricting public assistance waiver and other changes without legislative action.
    • In the House Committee on Welfare Reform, we’ll provide opponent testimony on HB 2240, which would require legislative approval of KanCare state plan amendments.

  • Date to be determined:
    • In the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency, we submitted opponent testimony on SB 151, regarding KanCare waiver authority. This was supposed to have a hearing on Monday, but we’ve heard it will be postponed, though that is not yet showing online.
    • In Senate Health, we’ll testify in opposition to SB 172, regarding prohibiting a school from denying entry to a student who has been exposed to an infectious or contagious disease if there is no isolation/quarantine order.

There’s a lot to keep up with this session, so remember you can always visit the Legislature’s website and look up the bills you care about to see where they’re at in the process. And you can get day-to-day updates on what bills KAC is monitoring during the 2025 Session here.