TOPEKA — The Kansas Legislature’s unprecedented budget takeover will enter the 2025 legislative session with a bare bones spending plan and sweeping cuts while Republican lawmakers eye property and corporation tax reductions.
Gov. Laura Kelly is still preparing her own budget — as is customarily the governor’s duty — and said her greatest apprehension ahead of the 2025 session is overspending, she told Kansas Reflector on Wednesday.
The apprehension applies both to spending on programs and further tax cuts, she said.
“Obviously, we know what happens when you go too far too fast on tax cuts,” Kelly said, recalling her predecessor Gov. Sam Brownback’s tenure, during which he implemented an experimental tax program that diminished the state’s tax base creating revenue deficits. “And I don’t think anybody in the state of Kansas wants to go back to that, including the Legislature.”
Kansas Republicans created a new committee this year to give legislators the opportunity to craft their own preliminary budget. The committee wrapped up its meetings Thursday.
The meetings consisted of iterative presentations from almost 100 state agencies and departments seeking funding enhancements, which also were presented to the governor.
Under Kansas’ customary budget process, state agencies can appeal the Division of Budget’s recommendations to the governor. This year, about $1.1 billion worth of requests are up for appeal, according to committee chairman Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican. The governor typically gets the final say on whether to accept or reject an appeal.
Waymaster weighed the possibility of denying all appeals requests in the legislative budget, regardless of what the governor decides.
“If we want to do property tax relief for the people of the state of Kansas, there’s no way we can approve the 1.1 billion that’s been appealed,” he said.
But House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita, proposed eliminating all requested budget enhancements that added any new staff and the salary increases associated with them, leaving the Legislature with a base budget that could see additions as the session proceeds. A majority of committee members supported Hawkins’ proposal.
Expanding bureaucracy
Mounting requests for new facilities and expanded bureaucracy have too often flown under the radar, said Rep. Henry Helgerson, a Democrat from Eastborough, at a Dec. 12 committee meeting. He pointed to a $114 million ask from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for a new headquarters and the now over-budget Docking State Office Building, which is set to finish renovations in April.
“We have gotten to a point where we just approve things and don’t say anything,” Helgerson said.
It’s up to legislators to curtail spending, he said, wary, too, of the majority party’s plans for further tax cuts.
“This group has to change the trajectory of our spending in the state,” he said, referring to the legislative budget committee.
