TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly’s seventh State of the State speech on Wednesday called for investments in water resources and public schools, streamlining early childhood regulation, pursuit of sustainable tax policy and expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
Kelly, a Democrat who took office in 2019 as the state’s 48th governor after serving 14 years as a state senator, urged the Kansas Legislature to frame these significant issues in the context of what Kansas could look like at the end of this century.
She asked lawmakers to step outside the day-to-day competition to score short-term political points. She recommended elected officials at the Capitol devote more energy to shaping what would lie ahead for Kansas’ children and grandchildren.
“Since I’ve been in office, we have built an incredibly strong foundation for our state. Kansas has never been in better financial shape,” Kelly said. “Now, it’s time to build on that foundation.”
While looking down the road to 2100, she posed big questions: Is the agriculture economy booming because water resources were preserved and rural Kansas didn’t dry up? Do Kansas businesses have the best and brightest workers because the priority was superior public schools? Is Kansas an economic-development powerhouse? Did Kansas hold onto its small-town traditions?
“It’s easy to forget that we aren’t playing some kind of game here,” Kelly said. “We have real power. The decisions we make in this building touch every aspect of the lives of the people we work for. Here’s the truth. The Kansas our grandkids will inherit is up to us right now.”
Kelly said the mission was to filter through some pretty wacky notions to settle on smart, reasonable common-sense bipartisan ideas.
“I’m not asking you not to love your political party,” the Democratic governor said. “I’m just asking you to love your state a little more.”
Young kids, and water
Kelly said the way Kansas chose to invest in children would hold sway over the trajectory of the rest of this century. A child’s experiences from birth to age 5 played a central role in social and emotional development, academic achievement and career success, she said.
She said the state recognized the shortage of child-care providers and that skyrocketing costs handicapped businesses. Urgent state investment meant Kansas would added more child-care capacity in the next two years than in the previous 15 years, the governor said.
The problem? Kansas has siloed early-childhood services into four different state agencies.
“If a family is searching for care for a newborn, that family must navigate among three different agencies to figure out which program is the right fit,” Kelly said. “If a child care center wants to get off the ground, it must work with one state agency to get licensed, another to receive financial aid and workforce support, and a third to get assistance with start-up costs.”
Kelly’s solution: Create the Office of Early Childhood. It would be a one-stop shop for young families. This idea of eliminating irritating red tape and bureaucracy gained traction in the Kansas House in 2024, passing the chamber with 110 votes.
Meanwhile, Kelly proposed creation of the Office of Natural Resources to streamline management of water resources. Currently, those programs were shared among 14 different state agencies. This consolidation would improve the state’s ability to align policy, planning and investment, she said.
