Will Kansas Kids Be Better Off After This Legislative Session?

Kansas Action for Children | May 2025

Even with its abbreviated session, the Kansas Legislature passed dozens of bills this spring. But while there was a lot of output from the Statehouse, lawmakers wasted time on bills granting themselves more power.  

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Despite promises on the campaign trail to focus on property tax relief and making it easier for families to afford their growing grocery budget, lawmakers spent the majority of session focusing on solutions for problems that don’t exist.  

The supermajority stronghold proved itself in final votes, from nearly every committee decision to almost every floor vote. And with this increased control, we witnessed many lawmakers take it as an opportunity to play political games.  

This was especially apparent in tax debates, state budget plans, and tightened oversight over state programs.  

Our team is in the Statehouse every day the Legislature is in session. We’re there to not only advocate for the next generation of Kansans, but also to document and share what actions elected officials are taking.  

Unfortunately, as we perform a final review on the 2025 Session, we don’t see much good that will actually help Kansas kids and families be better off than before lawmakers came to Topeka in January. Several legislative actions described in this write-up demonstrate how out of touch lawmakers are with their districts and the current federal landscape that is threatening our state’s security and our children’s futures. 

We believe, though, that identifying what has transpired over the past several months will give us all insight into how to cut through harmful rhetoric to properly advocate for Kansas kids and families in the months and years to come. As the Legislature aims to hit a similar quickened timeline in 2026, we hope all Kansans can go into the next cycle of lawmaking more prepared. 

The state Legislature relied on a lack of transparency – shortened timelines, last-minute bill hearings, and a long list of bills circumventing typical legislative procedure – in much of its decision making.

This theme particularly played out with HB 2045, a child care bill that was amended with little discussion to expand legal, unlicensed child care and codify loosened vaccine requirements in child care settings.

More than a year in the making, a compromise had been negotiated that merged the Office of Early Childhood proposal with the wants of some lawmakers regarding child care regulations. This early version of the bill was a result of input negotiated by the child care community, advocates, and other stakeholders.

Sadly, the bill was renegotiated behind closed doors, and the thoughts from those who know child care best were bypassed in favor of those willing to diminish health and safety standards that protect the littlest kids.

HB 2045 – which includes the two amendments highlighted above – was signed into law by the Governor after the Legislature overwhelmingly passed the measure.

We look back on our hope from early in the session that the bipartisan compromise negotiated alongside the child care community would lead to collaborative results – and prevent harmful provisions from becoming law. Unfortunately, that isn’t what happened.

Now, as we look forward, we’ll continue to partner with affected Kansans to urge lawmakers to defer to those with expertise and fix the problems with HB 2045 before it’s too late. Maybe next time, they’ll listen.

Modeled after national narratives at play, several Kansas lawmakers came into the session with a focus on eliminating so-called fraud and abuse in the name of government efficiency. But in their stated efforts to cut government, many proposals would actually grow government and create more administrative red tape.

HB 2217 expands the authority of the Medicaid Inspector General’s Office (which is overseen by the Kansas Attorney General) to investigate instances of fraud within the SNAP, child care assistance, and TANF programs. With this set to become law due to the Legislature overriding the Governor’s veto, this Office will add nine new employees at a cost of $1 million to Kansas taxpayers.

The Office’s track record in investigating Medicaid thus far is poor; only seven cases have been referred for prosecution in the past year. We don’t believe this Office will find much when it expands its reach to other programs, but Kansans who rely on them surely will feel the scrutiny and could have their benefits interrupted in the meantime.

Then, while lawmakers sustained the Governor’s veto on SB 79 (which could have led to prohibiting SNAP recipients from spending benefits on state-defined candy or soda), the policy remained in the state budget after lawmakers tied the rule to releasing state funds to administer the Summer EBT program.

This underhanded move was especially devious, as it pushes through policy eroding the intent behind the SNAP program: making food more accessible for hungry Americans. With the federal government likely to approve this punitive measure, more retailers throughout the state could have to face the choice of dealing with more intense administrative burdens or forgo SNAP as a payment method all together.

Every year, it seems that Kansas lawmakers make it more difficult for low-income families to access assistance programs that help them get a leg up. As we all know, “deservingness” is quite subjective, and Kansas’ lawmakers usually apply a lens of suspicion (not compassion) when it comes to those needing a bit of help to get by.

Dominating narratives of an out-of-control Executive Branch and runaway local governments culminated in several pieces of legislation that consolidated power within the Legislature. Despite the Governor’s disapproval, the Legislature charged on with three bills that disregard state agency expertise or the ability of local entities to respond to their communities’ unique needs.

In Senate Sub. for HB 2240, lawmakers have put themselves fully in charge of approving changes to public assistance programs, like SNAP, TANF, child care assistance, and Medicaid. Instead of focusing on ways to make critical programs better serve Kansas kids and families and streamline agency workflows, lawmakers decided to add a thick layer of red tape that will bog down programs and prevent timely responses to changes directed by the federal government.

In HB 2101, lawmakers stripped away municipalities’ ability to implement guaranteed income programs, which have been proven to be an innovative way to establish financial security among families in their communities. Under the guise of encouraging employment, lawmakers took away options for local governments to provide opportunities for people to gain a bit of financial breathing room.

Lastly, via House Sub. for SB 29, the state is now prohibiting state or local governments from banning public gatherings in light of disease outbreaks. This bill seems to be in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but applies this philosophy to any situation in which a disease could spread via large convenings. With Kansas experiencing its largest measles outbreak in years, now was not the time to double down on bad public health policy.

The last thing the Legislature needs is more heavy-handed oversight over programs they aren’t experts in or preventing local authorities to offer desired programs. The checks and balances of our government are set up for a reason – and the Legislature keeps whittling away at them year after year.

When lawmakers reconvened in January, their primary mandate was to address the rapidly rising property tax burdens on homeowners across the state. But while both chambers set their sights on lowering property taxes, the House and the Senate had very different ideas about how to achieve this. Ultimately, they were unable to reach a compromise that would deliver meaningful property tax relief to Kansans.

The only property tax cut that both chambers were able to agree on was SB 35, which eliminates the 1.5-mill state educational buildings fund levy. This will provide property tax relief (albeit minimal) to Kansas homeowners.

But this small property tax cut could have been much more impactful if the Legislature had refrained from funneling our surplus funds toward a flat income tax, as they did in SB 269. The goal of this bill is to provide large tax cuts for the wealthiest Kansans and the most profitable corporations in the state by setting us on the path to a flat 4% personal and corporate income tax rate.

Rather than using these excess collections for a child tax credit, additional property tax relief, or any other priority that would help everyday working families, the Legislature decided this year that there was hardly anything more important than a family making $50,000 paying the same income tax rate as a millionaire.

Lawmakers’ tax priorities demonstrated how out of touch they are with the struggles many Kansans are experiencing. Thousands are living paycheck to paycheck, are being burdened by skyrocketing rents, and are having to put more towards their grocery budgets than ever before.

The impact of the changes made to the state tax code will take years to fully materialize and could easily result in a budget crisis in which the state has little ability – or appetite – to respond. Should that come to pass, Kansans can expect draconian cuts that will erode the public sector and do lasting damage to critical government services.

Before the session started, budget-focused lawmakers stated their intention to veer from the typical budget process of considering the Governor’s budget proposal and editing that version. Instead, the budget process flowed through a small set of individuals, even fewer of whom had a heavy hand and pushed through their own priorities.

These select few doled out public dollars to special interests, deprioritized school funding (particularly for special education students), arbitrarily slashed state agency budgets, and funneled money toward unproven AI programs.

This left advocates (including KAC) having to protect the programs thousands rely on. From education funding to continuous 12-month KanCare coverage for eligible parents and caregivers, the budget committees threw several items in the budget that would have rolled back long-standing practices.

Considerable expertise is needed to build the state’s budget. But lawmakers ignored the months of work by the Division of Budget and ended up with a final product that ignores reality. Depleted state revenues aren’t enough to cover spending, and the state is expected to experience a significant shortfall of $730 million by FY 2029.

Let’s be clear: this shortfall is a direct result of Kansas lawmakers’ priorities in 2024 and 2025. Their shortsighted tax policy has resulted in extreme mismanagement of the budget – and kids and families will be the ones most at risk. We saw this begin to happen in the 2010s, and it seems lawmakers are determined to repeat history.

The result of the state budget (and large tax packages depleting the state’s revenues) leaves us to wonder if the Legislature actually understands how to manage the state’s finances. In fact, lawmakers have created a fail safe for themselves after overriding the Governor’s veto on SB 14, which will allow the previous year’s spending plan to continue if a new proposal fails to become law. One of the only duties of the Legislature is to pass a new state budget each year so the state can be flexible. But with this bill set to become law, legislators can even further politicize the state budget and block expenditures from best meeting the unique needs of Kansans.

Weathering the Storm

The Legislature demonstrated this session that they are largely refusing to prioritize what families need to thrive – food for every meal, health care when needed, a safe place to sleep, and educational opportunities no matter where they live.

We’ll be honest. This session was harder than any in recent memory. We saw Kansas lawmakers beginning to repeat Kansas’ history of a budget crisis that resulted in K-12 funding being cut, infrastructure neglected, and family support programs locked up tight.

But we noticed that when engaged Kansans showed up in the Statehouse – like they did for SB 254, a bill targeting undocumented immigrants – lawmakers failed to move forward on some bad policies. That’s the momentum that’s needed going into the 2026 session.

Lawmakers left many things hanging in the balance that can be easily taken up first thing come January, including requiring the state to waste money on cross checking public assistance recipients’ eligibility (SB 85), proposed constitutional amendments upending property tax valuations, and continued erosion of the commitment to public education.

Unfortunately, we are likely to see similar levels of supermajority influence next year, and more than ever, people must take action. Before next January, help us advocate for your communities by speaking with your lawmakers. Send an email, set up a meeting, and ask what they’re doing to make Kansas the best state for all families.

When all of us show up to watch their misdeeds, our elected officials will have no choice but to see us, listen, and do better.