The Kansas Legislature rebounded from dizzying defeat of a tax bill endorsed by Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican leadership by voting early Saturday for a three-year, $1.57 billion alternative that negotiators promised would deliver a state tax reduction to every Kansan.
Kansas senators killed a school finance bill that would have guided state education funding for the next three years, heeding warnings from public schools advocates that the bill’s special education provision could have proven disastrous.
The Kansas House on a voice vote decided Thursday to send a three-year, $1.4 billion tax cut package back to House and Senate negotiators, overriding a call from House Speaker Dan Hawkins to pass the bill and defying guidance of Gov. Laura Kelly.
Gov. Laura Kelly endorsed the tax-relief bill negotiated Wednesday by a committee ending the food sales tax early, exempting from income tax all Social Security benefits, expanding the residential property tax exemption, increasing the standard deduction for income tax purposes and cutting the top income tax rate.
Kansas lawmakers are trying to overhaul special education funding for public schools in a move condemned by public school advocates.
Legislators engaged Tuesday in opening rounds of conversation about using the state’s large revenue surplus to draft legislation delivering property, income and sales tax relief that Gov. Laura Kelly won’t veto.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is nearly finished with its inquiry into potential criminal activity surrounding the raid on the Marion County Record last year and will turn over findings to special prosecutors later this month, state authorities said Tuesday.
The Marion County Record has filed a lawsuit against local authorities who planned and carried out an illegal raid last year, accusing the “co-conspirators” of seeking revenge for unfavorable news coverage through falsified and invalid search warrants.
Kansas lawmakers are set to receive a substantial pay raise next year. Some say that’s key to recruiting more young and working class people to run for office.
The Kansas Legislature voted to send an intensely divisive bill Wednesday to Gov. Laura Kelly forbidding gender transition surgery, prescribing of puberty blockers and delivery of other gender-affirming care by medical professionals in Kansas to people younger than 18.
