Topeka, KS

The legislature spent the week passing a moderate amount of legislation, most of which was not terribly controversial. Next week will be a marathon. It is expected that 20 to 30 bills will be heard in each chamber each day next week. In preparation for this, many committees met for the last time this year to pass bills for next week. These bills will be included in the marathon to solidify each chamber's policy stances for conference committees.

The House passed its appropriations budget and tax policy positions through their respective committees this week. This overall policy position should give conservatives heart palpitations. The suggested budget is $50 million more than the Governor's, and she isn't chintzy about spending. In addition to special carve-outs for citizens who happen to be older or veterans, the suggested House tax bill also cuts property and income tax for everyone. We love tax cuts, but they don't work without spending cuts. Carve-outs and exemptions narrow the tax base and push people and businesses to other states. While this policy is intended to set the House's negotiating position only, the Senate's negotiating position outlined in SB 155 is much more fiscally responsible.

The legislature is up to 790 bills this session. HB 2439 (the abortion reversal notification), HB 2350 (human smuggling), SB 180 (women's bill of rights), and SB 317 (childhood sexual abuse) passed their respective committees this week. The legislature still has the opportunity to override the Governor's veto on Fairness in Girls' Sports.

Please keep Reps Carr, Martinez, and Robinson in your prayers. They are Democrats who broke ranks and voted for some of the bills below. KTC has released its policy positions for 2023–please check them out HERE. GO K-STATE!

Conservative Offense

Born Alive. HB 2313 passed the House this week. It would require babies who were born during and/or survived an abortion to be protected. Currently, babies who come out of the mother alive during an abortion are either saved, actively killed, or left to die. This would mandate that the only response would be to try and save the living human being. As these babies could be at varying levels of prematurity, clarity was given to ensure that mothers and their babies would not be separated.

HB 2313

ESG.  Environmental Social Governance is an eternally changing criteria used to grade companies and individuals. The requirements for the environmental grading rubric can be cow burps one day and natural gas stoves in homes the next. HB 2436 passed the House this week. HB 2436 is hopefully the first step in addressing the ESG issue. It mandates that Kansas's pension funds have a fiduciary responsibility to make investments with the best returns. This bill would also ban discrimination or preferential treatment by the state of contractors based on ESG criteria. As stated on the floor, HB 2436 is one of the weakest ESG laws in the country. HB 2404 would have been the strongest ESG law in the country.

HB 2436

K-12 Ed Budget.  The House passed H Sub SB 113 this week. This bill is a budget for FY 2023-25. It fully funds education to the tune of $6.4 billion in 2024. This would bring spending per student in Kansas to over $20,000. Considering the amount of money we spend on each student, academic performance should be higher. ESAs and competitiveness in the education marketplace, which the House passed last week, are the way forward.

H Sub SB 113

Accommodations by Sex for School Trips. HB 2427 requires that the Kansas schools separate students according to their sex when providing accommodations for overnight trips–including athletic, club, and fundraising events. Students who complain about violations of this bill are protected from retaliation. 



HB 2427