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- Topeka Buzz: Thursday, January 30
Topeka Buzz: Thursday, January 30
The gender transition services ban passes the Senate and now awaits the House. A proposal for continuous state budgeting, and a push to cap property valuation increases through a constitutional amendment.
Jason Anderson
January 30, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes
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The 🐝 Rating System
Each bill is evaluated based on four key factors: Scope of Impact, Financial Impact, Urgency, and Controversy. These factors are weighted to reflect their influence on the bill's overall importance. Here's how the ratings break down:
🐝 Minimal Impact: Legislation with limited reach or lower urgency and controversy.
🐝🐝 Moderate Impact: Proposals with a broader or more notable influence, addressing issues of medium urgency or financial significance.
🐝🐝🐝 High Impact: Bills with widespread consequences, urgent needs, or significant public and political attention.
Daily Legislative Update 🐝
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Below is today’s morning update on published activities in the Kansas Legislature.
Table of Contents
Top Stories of the Day
Senate Passes “Help Not Harm Act”
Correction: the initial write-up on SB63 indicated that it was a party line vote. This is incorrect; Senator Haley (D) voted for the bill.
On a mostly party line vote, the Kansas Senate passed a bill that would prohibit healthcare providers from offering gender transition treatments to minors. It goes now to the Kansas House, where it will likely be passed and sent to the governor (for an inevitable veto). We can expect to see this bill return later, when the legislature reconvenes to respond to vetoed bills.
State Budget Process Overhaul
Historically, the legislative and executive branches have been required to come to some sort of negotiated agreement about the overall Kansas budget. It’s been a central point of storytelling (and leverage) in Topeka for decades, and often serves as one of the only available tools for the minority party to participate in the democratic process.
SB 14 significantly weakens this leverage, by instituting a “continuous state budget.” With a continuous budget, appropriations continue on indefinitely at whatever level their current budget is established at unless modified by a new law. This removes the pressure of time from the negotiation process, and allows the supermajority to essentially freeze the budget as-is without any risk.
Proposed Property Tax Amendment
A proposed constitutional amendment, SCR 1603, aims to cap property valuation increases in Kansas, but beneath its promise of tax relief lies a serious risk to public services and local governance. By locking in limits on property value growth, the measure could starve schools, emergency services, and infrastructure projects of the revenue they need to keep up with rising costs.
Property taxes are a primary funding source for local governments, and restricting their growth could force cities and counties to either cut essential services or shift the burden onto other revenue streams, such as raising sales taxes. While supporters argue this measure would prevent unexpected tax hikes for homeowners, it could instead lead to an uneven system where new homeowners or businesses end up shouldering more of the tax burden.
In states where similar measures have passed, such as California’s Proposition 13, public schools and local infrastructure have suffered from long-term underfunding, and disparities between older and newer property owners have widened.
Bills and Resolutions
UPDATE: Summaries of these bills are now published on DataHive. The links below go directly to each bill’s writeup.
House Bills on the Floor for Consideration
Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions:
Consent Calendar (Bills Eligible for Fast-Track Approval):
HB 2037: Increasing the membership of the Council on Travel and Tourism, updating legislative committee assignments, and modifying grant allocation rules for tourism promotion.
HB 2004: Providing Seward County the ability to levy a countywide retailers' sales tax for financing roadway and bridge projects.
General Orders (Bills Under Consideration):
SB 63 – Help Not Harm Act: Prohibiting healthcare providers from treating a child whose gender identity is inconsistent with the child’s sex.
Senate Bills on the Floor for Consideration
Final Action on Bills and Concurrent Resolutions:
SB 5 – Elections & Funding: Prohibiting the use of funds provided by the United States government for the conduct of elections and election-related activities unless approved by the legislature.
SB 6 – Elections & Voting Methods: Prohibiting the use of any form of ranked-choice voting methods in conducting elections.
SB 14 – State Budget: Providing for a continuous budget until amended, lapsed, or eliminated by the legislature; temporary reallocations; establishing conditions and limitations therefor.
SCR 1603 – Property Taxation: Proposing a constitutional amendment limiting valuation increases for real property and for personal property classified as mobile homes used for residential purposes.
SB 4 – Advance Voting: Requiring the return of advance ballots by 7:00 p.m. on election day.
Consent Calendar (Bills Eligible for Fast-Track Approval):
SB 8 – Traffic & Roadway Safety: Providing a penalty for unlawful passing of stationary emergency and service vehicles.
General Orders (Bills Under Consideration):
HCR 5003 – Legislative Rules: Adopting joint rules for the Senate and the House of Representatives for the 2025-2026 biennium.
New Bills Introduced
House Bills
Education:
🐝 HB 2139: Increases minimum expenditure limit for school contracts.
🐝 HB 2140: Establishes a D.A.R.E. educator in Kansas.
🐝🐝 HB 2141: Allow parental objection to educational materials, activities.
🐝🐝 HB 2142: Mandates independent review for school bullying complaints.
🐝🐝 HB 2156: Introduces school choice tax credits for non-public education.
🐝🐝 HB 2154: Authorization of tax collection increases for higher education initiatives.
Government, Elections & Local Affairs:
Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice:
🐝 HB 2155: Sheriffs' liability for jail management defined.
Health & Social Services:
Agriculture, Environment & Wildlife:
Labor & Employment:
🐝🐝 HB 2151: Increases Kansas minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Tax & Finance:
🐝🐝 HB 2152: Regulates public deposits and investments in Kansas.