Legislative Update: State of the State

The Legislature was busy this week considering a number of bills. First, the Senate and the House introduced and then immediately held hearings on their redistricting maps. This is the culmination of work that has been occurring over the last year since the census data was received. The Legislature has the responsibility to evenly distribute congressional districts, state senate and state house districts based on population. There has been a lot of scrutiny applied to this process with many people accusing the Legislature of politicizing this process to influence elections. The Senate was the first to have debate on their maps, and they passed on a party-line vote Friday. The House is expected to debate their maps next week, and you can expect a bill to be sent to the Governor late next week or early the week after. It’s worth noting that many individuals have stated they expect litigation over these maps likely creating delays in their implantation.

There was also an information hearing held in Senate Education regarding Maintenance of Effort (MOE). MOE was one of the requirements handed down by the federal government as a condition of receiving stimulus dollars. It places minimum requirements for funding of higher education by the State, and the State in FY22 and FY23 was originally short of that requirement by $106M. The State funded half of that difference in FY22 and applied for waiver to the federal Department of Education. That waiver is still under consideration and if it is not granted, the State will have to spend an additional $53M on higher education this fiscal year. In FY23, the Governor’s budget funds in excess of what the requirement states.

The House and Senate also introduced and quickly held hearings on a massive economic incentive for a private company that is considering moving to Kansas and bringing 4,000 jobs. The total for the incentives could reach more than a billion dollars, but there is very little know about the company outside of the number of jobs. This bill will likely be a priority for the next week or two and will receive a great deal of attention given the potential economic impact and size of the inducement.

Summary

It is still early in the legislative session, but they are aggressively moving on large items like redistricting. Once that issue is resolved, they will likely turn their focus towards a tax bill. The Governor in her budget proposed a tax bill that would eliminate the food sales tax and provide a $250 tax rebate ($500 for joint filers). The Legislature will likely have a different proposal possibly focusing on altering tax brackets, and that will likely have an impact on the budget process as it will consume at least some of the excess revenue.