14 March 2025 | Education & Early Learning Economic Security Tax and Budget Health

2025 Statehouse Snapshot: Week 9

(Photo: John Wilson, President and CEO, speaks at the Rally for Health Care on March 12, 2025.)

Kansas Action for Children | March 14, 2025

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Two More Weeks of Session Left

There are only a few short weeks of the regular legislative session left. This coming week, committees will wrap up their work before both chambers are on the floor all day Wednesday through Friday.

With their quickened timeline, lawmakers have failed to pass bills that actually help Kansans make ends meet. Instead, lawmakers have focused on divisive political topics, continued the false narrative that low-income folks are scheming to defraud the government by using benefits (SNAP, Medicaid) they are eligible for, and seem poised to pass bills that will grow the bank accounts of individuals and corporations with the highest incomes.

It’s highly unfortunate that lawmakers aren’t seriously considering bills that would increase financial security for thousands of Kansas families, like through a state child tax credit, allowing renters access to the Homestead Property Tax Credit, or addressing the cost of child care.

While there is little time for lawmakers to reverse course, it’s not impossible. With just 10 business days left before they adjourn for a short spring break, now is the time to reach out to your lawmakers about the priorities you care about.

Legislature Rushes Forward Flat Tax Plan

The House Tax Committee passed out HB 2318, a flat tax bill, to the full House chamber. The bill, which has a twin on the Senate side, is modeled after legislation passed in North Carolina more than a decade ago. This current flat tax scheme uses tax collections in excess of the rate of inflation to decrease income tax rates for individuals and corporations. The promise is that this will stimulate private investment, bringing jobs and people to the state.

It’s true that North Carolina has experienced above-average economic and population growth in recent years, which has improved economic conditions in the state and provided for a growing budget.

But having bound its hands with income tax cuts, North Carolina now faces an impending dilemma. Revenues are estimated to begin declining in FY 2027, beginning with an $800 million reduction in general fund collections that year. Rather than saving excess revenues or investing in the future of the state, the state will funnel tax cuts toward mostly benefitting the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in North Carolina.

These tax reductions have now left the state in a precarious financial position and shifted the tax burden onto low- and middle-income residents of the state. Make no mistake, if this legislation becomes law in Kansas, it will offer the greatest benefit to the largest corporations in the state. Consider that more than 90% of the corporate income tax is paid by those with more than $1 million in taxable income. Reducing income tax for these profitable corporations forces everybody else to pay more for public services.

The Legislature should focus on finding the right policy for this state rather than trying to match the policies of other states with fundamentally different economies.

House to Consider Prohibiting Bans on Public Gatherings – just as Measles Case Reaches Kansas

The House is likely to soon consider Sub. for SB 29 after the House Health Committee passed it out. This already concerning public health bill now makes additional changes that could lead to tying up the court systems, while more easily overturning public health restrictions to stop infectious diseases spread and risking more rapid outbreak spread.

With Kansas reporting its first case of measles since 2018 in Stevens County (Southwest Kansas), bills like Sub. for SB 29 or others impacting public health policy could have dire long-term consequences. The House must seriously consider the overarching impact when it comes up for deliberation on the floor.

If you’d like to read more about the Kansas outbreak or measles vaccination resources, our partner, the Immunize Kansas Coalition, has already launched an information resource hub. It’s yet again an important reminder why long-standing immunization requirements, health care access, and public health policy matters to our communities, especially our littlest Kansans.

The House overwhelmingly passed House Sub. for 126 this week. This bill includes the CHIP eligibility technical fix we have advocated for since 2021, important newborn screening program updates, and more. As it now goes to the Senate for consideration, we hope that the health committee leadership agrees that this is an important piece of legislation for the health of Kansas kids and sends it to the Governor’s desk without additional changes.

KAC’s President and CEO John Wilson spoke at the Rally for Health Care in the Statehouse, sharing the importance of Medicaid expansion for kids and their caretakers, as well as the extreme harm that could result from proposed federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP programs. Our partner, the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, has activated a petition to protect health care for Kansans in 2025. Now is the time for all Kansans to show their support for affordable, accessible health care for everyone. (Photo courtesy of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas.)

Child Care Bill Stalls – for Now

After a question-and-answer session for lawmakers in the House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development last week, we had anticipated HB 2294 (the bipartisan early childhood proposal) activity as early as Wednesday this week. But concerns about the bill’s language and speculation about possible amendments have so far made the Committee refrain from reworking the bill.

As we dig into some of the committee (and non-committee) members’ points of contention with the bill, we see the possibility of the proposal straying quite far from the bipartisan agreement that has been worked on for more than a year.

We have previously shared our concerns about some aspects of the bill, like increasing the number of child care hours before an individual would have to be licensed. And if the Committee moves forward with amending vaccination exemptions within a child care setting, for example, our cause for concern will only grow to an alarming degree, especially in light of Kansas seeing its first case of measles since 2018.

The long-term health and safety of the littlest Kansans should not be used as a bargaining chip. As it currently is right now, HB 2294 represents considerable work to address some tension points within the child care system. Further changing the bill at the last second will undercut the experts who know early childhood the best.

State, Congress Targeting SNAP

The House Committee on Welfare Reform continued action on a few bills sent by the Senate this week.

SB 79, the bill essentially prohibiting SNAP recipients from using benefits to purchase candy/soda, is one step closer to becoming law after it was voted out of the House Committee on Welfare Reform.

The Committee also held a lengthy discussion about SB 85, which would require the Department for Children and Families (DCF) to monitor more than a dozen data points to continually redetermine SNAP eligibility.

The Director of Temporary Access for Needy Families (TANF), State Medicaid Director, and Medicaid Inspector General were present to talk about current processes for determining eligibility and what changes would be required if SB 85 were to become law. The conversation further validated how unnecessary and costly this legislation would be, and we are hopeful we won’t see any further action the bill.

While we might not see action on SB 85, there are plenty of other policies at the state and federal level that elevate harmful rhetoric against low-income families needing a bit of help to get by.

This is especially evident in Congress proposing $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and $230 billion in cuts to SNAP to provide the wealthiest 1% of Americans with a tax cut of $62,000 per year. Meanwhile, conversations in the Kansas Statehouse continue to focus on waste and fraud. In general, there seems to be a desire to increase spending on red tape to make it more difficult for low-income families to receive necessary benefits.

Senate Committee Uses Budget to Favor Special Interests

The Kansas Senate Committee on Ways and Means finished their changes to the budget bill Thursday evening; the full Senate plans to take a vote on the budget on Tuesday. Unfortunately, dozens of changes were made that were either carelessly vetted or are contradictory to the Legislature’s stated goal of reducing expenses. Several notable items were added by Senators that direct state resources to a contracted “single source” vendor that is clearly an underhanded way to allocate public dollars, even if they still submit it to an open RFP process.

We’re seeing the budget being used as a tool to cut off services for children and families and divert the funds to the priorities of those who can afford to persuade lawmakers to support their propositions.

So while the Senate believes the state can afford to cater to special interests, it’s not applying that same lens to special education, for which they added no extra money. With the House previously allocating $10 million – which is nowhere near enough to reach adequate levels – for special education, the two chambers will have to reconcile their differences on how much, if anything, to add. And unfortunately, several other education programs’ budgets were cut by the Senate Committee as well.

As the budget moves through its final steps in the next few weeks, we expect more process manipulations, cuts and changes to essential government services, and a reduced amount of available state funds that weren’t properly vetted.

What to Expect in Week 10

This next Tuesday will be the last day for committees to meet to wrap up their work for the year. After then, they must either have permission from legislative leadership or meet in what is known as a conference committee, where three people from each chamber negotiate the differences between similar legislation passed by their respective chamber.

Right now, we are watching three hearings early next week:

On Monday in Senate Judiciary, the Committee will hear HB 2378, the Removal of Squatters Act. We are providing opponent testimony.
On Monday in Senate Tax, we’ll provide neutral testimony on HCR 5011, dealing with restructuring property tax valuations.
On Tuesday in Senate Government Efficiency, we’ll testify in opposition to HB 2217, which would expand the Medicaid Inspector General’s duties to include fraud investigation in the TANF and SNAP programs.

There are plenty more bills to be worked. 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 get day-to-day updates on what bills KAC is monitoring during the 2025 Session here.