Legislative Update Week 11
Last Week of Regular Committee Meetings
Deadlines loom as the Legislature approaches its first adjournment. Today was the last day for non-exempt committees to consider the bills assigned to them; exempt committees (such as Appropriations or Tax) are not subject to this restriction. Next Thursday marks the last day that a non-exempt bill can be considered on the floor of the second chamber, meaning that a House bill which has passed out of a Senate committee must pass the full Senate by then or be considered dead for the remainder of the session.
Next week, both chambers will spend most of their days on the floor debating bills on general orders. There are no regular committee meetings scheduled.
Senate Tax Committee Takes Action
On Thursday, the Senate Tax Committee passed a bill to the full Senate that decouples Kansas income tax policy from federal income tax policy. This will allow Kansans to itemize their state income taxes even if they do not on their federal income taxes. It’s estimated that about 20 percent of Kansans will be able to use the increased deductions in this bill.
Bills of Interest
SB 422
deals with local option budgets (LOBs) for local school boards, making changes to the amount they can set and the process for going above the statutory cap. This bill was amended in committee on Thursday to remove the mandatory requirement that local school districts set a LOB at a minimum of 30 percent of the amount received from the state; otherwise property taxes would be raised in counties that do not currently meet the requirement.
