Legislators now return to their home communities for a three-week break before returning to the capital city to wrap up their work during veto session ahead of the 2024 election season.
Tax cuts
Tax cuts have been a top priority of legislators this session. While Republican leadership initially pushed a flat tax as part of a sweeping tax cut package, the inability to override a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly earlier this session forced the GOP to move on.
Lawmakers have seen various tax cut packages with a mix of relief on income taxes, property taxes and sales taxes as the prospects of tax cuts this year went through highs and lows like a rollercoaster.
First there was the news of Kelly and top Republicans negotiating a compromise package. But while Kelly and Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, were able to convince senators to support the plan, the governor and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, failed to win over representatives who said they wanted a better plan.
The Thursday night failure of that plan left in doubt that a new one could materialize before legislators left town, but they succeeded Friday night in finding a new version of House Bill 2036 that passed in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
State budget
House and Senate negotiators spent much of the last week hammering out the details of a 457-page budget bill with a 90-page document explaining how the state will spend $25.1 billion in fiscal year 2025.
That dollar figure is from all funds, which includes revenues like federal funds that lawmakers have little control over. The state general fund, which lawmakers do control, will spend $10.4 billion.
The budget in Senate Bill 28 includes a litany of items, like $141 million in all funds and $61 million from the general fund for state employee pay raises. Most workers can expect 5% raises, though it may be more or less depending on if the job is paying far below or above market. There will also be a new state employee minimum wage of about $15 an hour.
It remains to be seen whether Kelly will use her line-item veto powers on any specific appropriations.
When legislators return for veto session, they would have the opportunity to override any line-item vetoes. Legislators will also craft an omnibus budget based on new revenue projections that are typically released in mid- to late April.
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School budget
Republican leadership again split off K-12 education funding from the rest of the state government budget, but lawmakers left town without passing it, leaving school districts with some uncertainty as they work to plan budgets for the next school year.
Senate Bill 387 mixed money for schools with policy changes, the most controversial of which was how it approached special education.
While schools were in line for $77.5 million in new state money for special education, there were also changes to the SPED funding formula, among which was counting law taxpayer money as part of the state’s obligation. There were also concerns that the one-time funding increase would not come with additional increases in future years, leaving SPED underfunded.
The bill narrowly passed the House on Thursday but failed that evening in the Senate.
Legislators returned to negotiations Friday evening. While it appears there is a new plan without some of the SPED policy changes, lawmakers did not vote on it before adjourning early Saturday, the Senate at around 2:15 a.m. and the House at around 2:30 a.m.
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas lawmakers pass tax cuts but not school budget before adjourning
