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Topeka Buzz: Wednesday, February 26
Meet the Capitol Bee this Saturday at the Boots on the Ground Volunteer Fair!
Jason Anderson
February 26, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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Daily Legislative Update 🐝
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Below is today’s morning update on published activities in the Kansas Legislature.
Table of Contents
Top Stories of the Day
“Quiet” day in Topeka as Senate considers replacing the Kansas Supreme Court
As the first day back in session after the Turnaround break, most of the action continues to shift back to the committees. In the Senate, SB 210 was passed out of the Assessment and Taxation committee and back to the full chamber; this small bill gives tax exemptions to the Johnson County Christmas Bureau. In the House, HB 2125 was passed and would allow Pawnee County to propose a new sales tax to fund healthcare services. Both votes were uncontroversial.
Things were much noisier in the committees, however, where multiple much-more-controversial proposals and constitutional amendments were presented at hearings. At the top of that list is SCR 1611, which proposes replacing the appointment process to the state Supreme Court with a partisan election. This item was flagged here in the Topeka Buzz back on February 11, where we predicted it would become a loud and confrontational issue.
If the published testimony so far is any indication, I think that prediction rings true:
Proponent Testimony
| Opponent Testimony
|
Judging by the testimony alone, the proposed amendment is clearly a partisan issue. The alignment of Americans for Prosperity, the Kansas Policy Institute, multiple elected Republican officials, and conservative justices belie the coordinated action. With a veto-proof supermajority as the backdrop, it’s difficult to find a path that leads to any outcome besides the passage of the resolution.
Advocates should focus their energy on the next phase of this debate: organizing for the citizen vote on the November 2026 ballot.