And how can we win
When fools can be kings?
Don’t waste your time
Or time will waste you
Knights of Cydonia, Muse
Table of Contents
What Just Happened?
If you’ve been trying to keep track of what’s been going on in Topeka this year (even if just by reading the Capitol Bee), you might feel like you just ran a sprint. That’s forgivable; after all, we just saw 706 bills introduced in under 90 days. Only 63 of those made it all the way to governor’s desk, however, in what turned out to be the least “productive” session (excluding the COVID session of 2020) in over a decade.
Fewer bills made it to the Governor’s desk this session than any prior session in the past 13 years (excluding COVID)
Given the supermajority dynamic (where conservatives have veto-proof numbers in both chambers), it’s both surprising and a relief to some that more hadn’t been accomplished. Consider this a direct consequence of the Republican decision to accelerate the legislative timeline; they simply didn’t have enough time to finish reconciling all bills between the House and Senate.
That’s not to say that big things didn’t happen–some of those new laws will have far-reaching and long-term effects. But depending on your political perspective, things could either have been much worse or gone much further than they did.
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What Passed and What’s Pending
So: we now have 48 bills waiting for the Governor’s action, 13 bills that have been signed and are now law, and 2 that became law with a veto override. Here’s my key takeaways.
Veto Overrides
The two bills that were vetoed and overridden were both at the center of national hot topic debates: SB 4, which eliminates the three-day grace period for advance ballots; and SB 63, which banned gender transition treatment for minors. Both of these veto overrides were passed exclusively with Republican votes, in both chambers.
In the future, should you find yourself in conversation about whether or not your vote matters, direct the skeptic to these two votes. SB 4 passed by one vote in the House; SB 63 passed by two votes in the House. Many state house races were decided by a couple hundred votes or less.
New Laws
The 13 bills already signed into law by Governor Kelly are essentially noncontroversial (see list, below). I’d expect many of the bills of similar “weight” to be signed in the coming days.
Education:
Government Organization, Elections, and Public Administration:
HB 2261: Reclassifies Kansas highway patrol employment positions.
HB 2117: Revises business entity filing and dissolution requirements.
HB 2145: Establishes the Butler County Fair Board.
SB 7: Increases township bonding limits based on population.
SB 194: Protections against discriminatory property use covenants.
Labor, Employment, and Workers’ Rights:
Healthcare and Public Health:
Transportation and Infrastructure:
SB 8: Regulates traffic near stationary vehicles with penalties.
Veto Debates Coming Soon
Many of the pending bills strike directly at the balance of powers between the executive and legislative branches, or propose fundamental changes in the operation of government functions. I would be surprised if any of these bills did not receive a veto.
SB 5: Prohibits federal funds for election activities without approval.
SB 105: Establishes process for filling government office vacancies.
SB 78: Postsecondary institutions must update accreditation policies.
SB 14: Establishes a continuous budget for state appropriations.
SB 29: Right to Health Freedom Act (vaccine and quarantine exemptions).
HB 2106: Bans foreign contributions in Kansas campaign finance.
HB 2020: Mandates reporting of noncitizen driver's licenses.
The budget and appropriations bill’s final state warrants a full article. Stay tuned in the next few weeks, I’m waiting to see what (if anything) changes in it through the veto session.
2025 Predictions Check-In
Back in January, I’d proposed 8 predictions for 2025. With the session largely behind us, this is a good time to circle back and see how we’re tracking.
❌ School Vouchers, Everywhere | Somehow, we have made it through the 2025 session without a new school voucher program. We did see a $125M/year (and growing) voucher make it out of the senate education committee, but veto-proof votes weren’t there (yet) and so it was stored in another committee to dust off and try again in 2026. Also failed: an expansion of an existing voucher tax credit. Intellectual honesty requires scoring this prediction as incorrect, though the risk is not reduced. |
⁇ Wither Accountability | It’s still too early to tell whether our efforts to hold elected officials accountable for their votes has been structurally damaged. We see promising signs at the national level, where Tesla protests and citizen marches and flooding town halls at least is making its way into the public conversation. |
✅ Topeka Blitzkrieg | It’s already finished. ‘Nuff said. |
✅ Bad Tax Policy, Everywhere | Between flat tax rates, automatically decreasing corporate and personal income taxes, and continuous budget mechanisms, the Kansas tax environment looks to become more chaotic and difficult to change. |
⁇ Focus on Young Male Culture | This is very subjective and difficult to measure. We’ll revisit this theme later in the year in-depth. |
⁇ AI Employees | Anecdotal reports of shifts in hiring based on AI productivity aren’t yet enough to call this, but it’s trending in AI’s favor. If you have young adults in your family preparing to enter the workforce, it’s a completely different experience than it was when you looked for your first job…it’s different from even two years ago. |
⁇ Economy Good for Business, Bad for Workers | When this prediction was first written in January, the world hadn’t been challenged to incorporate tariffs into their worldview. Since then, growth is down (for both employers and workers). |
⁇ School Board Assault | We should begin seeing indicators of what the school board election season will look like over the next month, as we approach filing deadlines for local races. |
What’s Next for Capitol Bee
For the past three months, Capitol Bee has been largely a reactive project as we built tools and communication channels for helping folks stay informed about day-to-day activity in Topeka. That work waxes and wanes with the legislative calendar; by the end of April, attention will shift to the future.
What you can expect:
Tools: Our digital research and communication tools BillBee and LetterSwarm will become focal points. We have many ideas for how to make them ever-more useful, and want those improvements to be in place before 2026.
Research: As a former researcher and pollster, I still believe in the value of well-executed surveys and conversations. You’ll see opportunities to share your voice, and see that reflected in stories about our communities.
Events: We look forward to meeting folks at in-person and virtual events. (If you have something scheduled, feel free to invite us!)
Surprises! (Can’t tell you, otherwise they wouldn’t be surprises)
