The Kansas Senate’s budget committee wants to hold $4 million hostage from Gov. Laura Kelly until state agencies proved they eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion jobs and programs as well as ended use of pronouns in email signatures.
Republican legislation to establish child support for pregnancy costs — and, in turn, establish “fetal personhood” — revealed tension among legislators as a Democratic senator representing part of Lawrence inserted a bipartisan tax credit provision.
Members of a House committee on Wednesday weighed a bill that would declare the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum have no power to enforce any mandates in Kansas or any governing body in the state.
Critics of the affordable housing tax credit argue it is costing Kansas too much. Supporters say it’s helping construct new homes amid a housing shortage that’s driving up costs of homes and contributing to homelessness.
The Kansas Senate adopted a resolution that calls for the election of justices to the Kansas Supreme Court by popular vote. The House now has a choice: Accept the Senate’s resolution, pass an alternative, or table the issue for another year.
Thousands of state employees who once worked in office buildings in Kansas’ capital and frequented downtown businesses for lunch and happy hour now work from home all or part of the time. They could be called back to the office under proposed legislation.
Kansas Senators advanced a constitutional amendment Wednesday that would convert Kansas’ method for selecting state supreme court justices from a merit-based system to an elections system.
For Joanna Herrmann and 100-plus other opponents who spoke at a Kansas House hearing or submitted testimony, SB 76, which would forbid school employees from using preferred pronouns without parental consent, is both personal and hurtful.
A Republican-led Senate committee declined Monday to take action on a bill that would prohibit people in Kansas without permanent legal status from receiving public benefits, including in-state tuition, and permit higher bond prices for those charged with crimes.
The way freshman Sen. Patrick Schmidt sees it, a shorter legislative session isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Topeka Democrat said the shortened timeline for passing bills could work in Democrats’ favor.
