Overridden and Overreaching

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Table of Contents

• Two Steps to the Right

• SB 269 – Automatic Tax Cuts Tied to Revenue

• Next Weekend: Free State Protests

Two Steps to the Right

Kansas’ 2025 legislative session has been a case study in power and purpose. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, wielding her veto to block bills she deemed extreme or harmful, was repeatedly overruled by a Republican supermajority determined to impose a hard-right policy agenda. In a span of days, most vetoes were overridden – each override converting a gubernatorial “no” into law. These new laws affect everything from voting and public health to personal rights and taxation, reflecting broader ideological campaigns by Kansas conservatives.

This outcome is no accident. As I discussed in Strategy vs. Tactics, Kansas Republicans have spent decades building and executing a strategic vision for power. Now, with veto-proof majorities in both chambers, they are aggressively leveraging that power to advance their agenda on multiple fronts. Meanwhile, Democrats’ victories have been largely tactical and temporary: a veto here, a close vote there. The contrast is stark:long game versus short-term defense.

Today’s write-up is the first of many close looks at key vetoes, and what their overrides means for Kansas. For our LetterSwarm users, we also have new campaigns you can quickly click on and send to your elected legislator of choice.

Today’s topic: automatic tax cuts.

SB 269 – Automatic Tax Cuts Tied to Revenue

SB 269 establishes a formula to automatically cut Kansas income tax rates whenever revenue grows beyond a certain point, with the long-term goal of flattening the income tax to a flat rate of 4% for all taxpayers. Here’s how it works:

• Each year, if the state’s general fund tax collections exceed the inflation-adjusted 2024 baseline and if the state’s rainy-day fund is at least 15% of annual revenues, income tax rates will drop automatically.

• The two current tax brackets (5.2% for lower-income, 5.7% for higher-income) will both ratchet down step by step until eventually everyone pays 4%.

In essence, this law bakes in future tax cuts tied to surplus conditions. It’s a conservative tax engineer’s dream: a self-triggering mechanism to shrink taxes (and by extension, state government) over time, without any further votes needed. Notably, this includes corporate income and bank privilege taxes too, which would see reductions under the same conditions. The bill was spearheaded by GOP tax hawks who have long sought a flat tax in Kansas.

Gov. Kelly vetoed SB 269 with a clear memory of recent history: the notorious 2012–2016 Brownback tax experiment that plunged Kansas into budget crisis. She warned that these automatic cuts could “cost the state up to $1.3 billion annually” once fully realized, blowing a massive hole in future budgets. Kelly’s veto message argued that tying tax cuts to any uptick in revenue, regardless of context, is fiscally reckless:

It doesn’t matter if Kansas schools are underfunded, or infrastructure is crumbling; if the formula hits, the tax cuts happen. She even painted a vivid picture of what happened last time Kansas tried huge tax cuts: four-day school weeks, budget cuts, and crumbling roads and bridges.

On April 10, the Republican supermajority once again flexed its muscle, overriding the veto (House 87–37, Senate 30–10). GOP leaders rejoiced, framing the policy as responsible stewardship that “returns money to taxpayers” when the government over-collects. To Republicans, this was a major strategic win: they managed to implement a version of the flat tax by stealth, achieving through automatic triggers what they couldn’t initially pass outright.

The implications are profound. In the short term, nothing changes, but in the long term, Kansas has set itself on a path to dramatically lower tax revenue, which could severely constrain funding for schools, roads, healthcare, and other services. The legislative fiscal note indicated no immediate hit because of the safeguards (the rainy-day fund threshold and inflation adjustment), hence Republicans touting “no fiscal note” as if it costs nothing. But Kelly and Democrats see the ticking time bomb: once triggers are met, the tax cuts will compound year after year. By some estimates, once fully phased in, the state would forego over a billion dollars each year.

Next Weekend: Free State Protests

Boots on the Ground Midwest is coordinating rallies and protests across Kansas next weekend, April 26 and 27. More information is available at their website below; so far, events are scheduled in over a dozen cities.