2025 Capitol Review
Week One
Jan. 13 – Jan. 17, 2025
Following the election in November, where all 125 House of Representatives seats and 40 Senate seats were open, more than 30 new lawmakers were sworn in to represent their districts’ interests. Governor Laura Kelly delivered the annual State of the State address on Wednesday where she focused on economic development initiatives, a new strategic plan to conserve water and her disagreement toward republican leadership’s plans to cut corporate income and property taxes. Quickly following the speech, Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins (R-Wichita) and Senate President Ty Masterson (R-Andover) quickly went to work with their party’s supermajority (88-37 in the House, 31-9 in the Senate) advantage to begin advancing their plans to reduce the tax burden on Kansans.
Week Two
Jan. 20 – Jan. 24, 2025
Following Monday’s holiday, lawmakers took advantage of the short work week and quickly introduced a flurry of bills ahead of the Jan. 27 deadline concluding the window for individual bill drafts. In all, nearly 170 pieces of legislation have been introduced in the 2025 Kansas legislative session, with many more ideas still in the drafting queue. The House of Representatives passed its resolution of the joint rules for the 2025-2026 biennium to the Senate for consideration, however, most of the heavy-lifting was conducted in committees during the legislature’s second week in Topeka. Leadership in both the House and Senate are focused on tax policy early-on in the session, evidenced by the Senate Tax Committee’s passage of SCR 1603, which would, if adopted by two-thirds majority in both chambers of the legislature, cap the growth of taxable value of any real property or residential mobile home personal property to three (3) percent per year.
Week Three
Jan. 27 – Jan. 31, 2025
Schools from around the state brought students to the statehouse this week to celebrate Kansas Day as lawmakers scrambled against the clock to get their bills introduced in this truncated 2025 legislative session. Social issues including gender affirming care dominated the headlines this week. Meanwhile, the first major piece of property tax legislation cleared the Senate chamber eliminating the state’s 1.5 mill property tax levy. With the legislature’s, “Turnaround,” scheduled for Feb. 20, a date by which all non-exempt bills must be passed out of their house of origin, committee chairs have scheduled numerous pieces of legislation for hearing and action next week.
Week Four
Feb. 03 – Feb. 07, 2025
Kansas legislative committees worked rapidly throughout the session’s fourth week, holding more than 75 hearings as the ‘Turnaround’ week quickly approaches on February 20. ‘Turnaround’ refers to the mid-point of the session where most bills must be passed out of their house of origin for hearings to begin in the opposite chamber. A bill is subject to the ‘Turnaround’ deadline unless it is “blessed” by legislative leadership or resides in an exempt committee (Federal and State Affairs, Appropriations, Tax and Ways and Means). Lawmakers and advocates work to have their interests advanced through the committee process, and several bills have been passed to the opposite chamber. Still looming are agreements on overall tax policy between the House and Senate, and the ever-present item of constructing a fiscally responsible state budget
Week Five
Feb. 10 – Feb. 14, 2025
Inclement weather in the middle of the week forced the legislature to postpone committee meetings, work later into the evenings and, in a rare occurrence, hold hearings on Friday afternoon ahead of the session’s first major deadline next week. Lawmakers have one remaining day of committee work next Monday before spending long hours on the floor of their respective chambers, prior to ‘Turnaround,” or the mid-point of the session where most bills must be passed out of their house of origin to stay alive for the year. A bill is subject to the ‘Turnaround’ deadline unless it is blessed by legislative leadership by being referred to an “exempt” committee – e.g., Federal and State Affairs, Appropriations, Tax, and Ways and Means. Also, next week, the House is scheduled to review and debate the state budget bill, leading to long days (and nights) prior to the beginning of the second half of the session. The House Appropriations Committee is already trimming millions of dollars from proposed agency budgets and other spending initiatives in an attempt to pare down state expenditures to meet revenues.
Week Six
Feb. 17 – Feb. 21, 2025
The Kansas legislature powered through this week’s winter storm in order to meet its self-imposed Turnaround Deadline, where most bills are required to advance through their house of origin by Friday, February 21. The House of Representatives sent 89 bills to their Senate counterparts, including the first budget bill of the year, while the senators in the upper chamber passed 64 pieces of legislation across the rotunda. Both chambers’ Republican supermajority paid dividends for legislative leadership as the legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning certain gender-affirming care, 31-9 and 85-34. Lawmakers received a welcomed long weekend, but plan to return to Topeka next Tuesday for the remaining three weeks of the 2025 legislative session, where they still look to pass a sustainable budget, as well as tax policy.
