Daily Legislative Update 🐝
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Below is today’s morning update on published activities in the Kansas Legislature.

Table of Contents

• Top Stories of the Day

  • BillBee (Finally) Shows the Votes

  • Large Corporate Tax Cut Emerges From Committee

• Bills Under Consideration

  • House Bills on the Floor for Consideration

  • Senate Bills on the Floor for Consideration

  • New Bills Introduced

Top Stories of the Day

BillBee (Finally) Shows the Votes

If you’ve ever tried to answer the question “how did Representative X vote on that thing” or “did any Republicans vote against their party on Y,” you’ve undoubtedly found that it’s nearly impossible to answer that question from the Kansas Legislature website. (It’s not technically impossible, but you have to know a lot of information in advance to be able to find what you’re looking for.)

So, we fixed that.

Starting today, and for every bill previously published on BillBee, we’re now counting the votes. We’re making them easier to view. And we’re working on ways to make it possible to look at a legislator’s vote record directly from their legislator profile. For organizations and advocates looking to “score” elected officials based on their voting record, we’re working on Scorecards that will enable to you pick the bills you care about and automatically generate shareable reports on how elected officials vote.

As a Topeka Buzz subscriber, you’re getting a sneek peek and advanced notice; we’ll be sharing more information in Monday’s Capitol Bee update. To explore it now, just visit the Bills section in BillBee and find the bill you’d like to see votes about. (We’re working on making the votes even easier to locate.)

Large Corporate Tax Cut Emerges From Committee

You may remember that the Kansas Legislature rules required any “non-exempt” bill to have been passed by its original chamber prior to “Turnaround Day.” And that those bills need to clear the other chamber by end of business this Friday.

The journey for exempt bills, while still urgent, isn’t as constrained. Anything related to taxes, federal issues, or state budgets generally gets shoved into an exempt committee so they can continue to work on it into the final days. (Or, more cynically, so it can be hidden from view and minimize the amount of time it’s in the public eye and vulnerable to debate or citizen action.)

Those tax bills are beginning to emerge; first on the plate is a bill that would not only cut corporate tax rates, but prevent future increases in corporate taxes.