Rep. Troy Waymaster, a Bunker Hill Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the House-passed state budget bill trimming spending below levels suggested by Gov. Laura Kelly demonstrated the potential of the 2025 Legislature's decision to introduce a budget bill in January rather than work solely from the governor's recommendations. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Republican-led Kansas House approved a state budget bill Wednesday that would appropriate about $162 million less than recommended by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.
Rep. Troy Waymaster, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said the objective was to bring expenditures more in line with revenue forecasts because to do otherwise could prove unsustainable in the future. One goal was to produce a budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 to was close to expenditures in 2024. That required restraint, Waymaster said, because state agencies submitted requests for $1.1 billion in new spending.
“Over the past four weeks the House Appropriations Committee has worked diligently to examine agency requests, especially appropriations, and spend tax dollars conservatively. The resulting budget accomplishes just that,” Waymaster said.
The Legislature deployed a new method of developing the budget. A joint House and Senate committee began examining spending proposals in late 2024 and packaged their recommendations in a bill intorduced in mid-January. An assortment of House budget committees evaluated pieces of that bill before the full appropriations committee submitted a revised version to the full House. On Wednesday, it was approved on final action in the House with a bipartisan majority of 83-36.
In terms of state tax dollars, the $10.5 billion general fund budget would appropriate $246 million or 2.4% less than was approved by lawmakers for the current fiscal year. If federal funding was included in the total, the House budget would be $25.4 billion. That would be an all-funds reduction of $1.5 billion from the current year.
If the House bill became law, it would be the first time in five years the Republican-controlled Legislature reduced spending from year to year.
Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said the House budget contained good and bad elements, and she characterized is as “lean … and a little mean.” Initially, Ballard voted Wednesday for the bill, but later received House permission to change her vote to a “no.” The bipartisan bill passed 83-36. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
The fine print
In terms of the fiscal year 2026 budget, House Bill 2007 earmarked $14.3 million for two-year college apprenticeships. There was $12.4 million for an evidence-based juvenile program.
The state armory in Hays would get $15.8 million, while there would be $7 million for a state airplane hangar in Wichita. A total of $179 million was set aside to build or repair Kansas bridges. An even $100 million was authorized for a capital improvement project adjacent to the football stadium at the University of Kansas.
The House legislation would funnel $11.7 million to municipal water projects. There was $4 million from the federal funding tied to Whooping Crane and Eastern Black Rail recovery efforts. The bill included $10.1 million for judicial branch salaries and $7.3 million for legislative compensation. It would appropriate $8.7 million to remove 320 people with intellectual or developmental disability waiting lists for services provided under Medicaid.
“This is a major step that brings us closer to ensuring fiscal responsibility in Kansas,” said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita. “I look forward to the Senate passing it out as well, then sending it to Governor Kelly’s desk for her signature.”
During a two-hour House debate on the bill Tuesday, the Republican majority defeated an amendment from Rep. Suzanne Wikle, D-Lawrence, that would have provided as many as 150,000 lower-income Kansans with Medicaid health coverage. For a decade, Kansas officials have refusing to expand access to affordable health care under Medicaid, despite a pledge from the federal government to pay at least 90% of added costs in expansion states.
“The biggest one we failed to do was Medicaid expansion,” said Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence. “We are one of 10 states that do not have it, which means 40 states must have seen it as valuable.”
Ballard said she considered the House bill to be “both lean … and a little mean.” She said the bill offered $38 million to increase state employee wages, but cut $200,000 from public broadcasting. It added $4 million for dental care of Medicaid recipients and $7 million for IT systems run by a private vendor to identify people carrying firearms in schools, but nothing to help lower-income students pay for school breakfasts or lunches.
Rep. Brett Fairchild, R-St. John, persuaded House members to include in a state budget bill $500,000 to create an equipment grant program for volunteer fire departments statewide. The program would be operated by the Kansas fire marshal’s office. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Volunteer firefighters
The House approved both of the amendments offered by Republicans and turned aside all four presented by Democrats during floor debate.
The first amendment to the budget was pitched by St. John GOP Rep. Brett Fairchild, who proposed $500,000 be withdrawn from $30 million set aside for the judicial branch. It would be reallocated to create an equipment grant program for volunteer fire departments. He said dipping into the judiciary budget would leave the judiciary with a 14.6% annual increase in appropriations.
“The Larned Fire Department in my district requested $1 million for this grant program,” Fairchild said. “Someone on the appropriations committee told me an appropriation of $500,000 would probably be more realistic.”
Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, secured House approval for an amendment restoring $1 million in funding for the Kansas Department of Commerce. A hold was placed on the money until the agency produced documents she requested on state economic development programs. The department released information related to 2022, she said, so the money was returned to the budget bill.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, D-Lenexa, introduced an amendment devoting $3 million to elimination of the copay for school children enrolled in the reduced-price breakfast and lunch program. She said the cash could be drawn from funding of a three-year, $20 million initiative to contract with a company to install and operate firearm detection camera in public and private schools.
“This is 70 cents per day for students having breakfast and lunch,” Hoye said. “This is true financial relief for the most vulnerable Kansans. This would truly put money back into the pockets of Kansas students.”
Waymaster, the House budget chairman, said Hoye’s amendment was well-intentioned, but it shouldn’t be approved at the expense of technology that could identify a potential school shooter. Her amendment was rejected 40-77.
Rep. Ford Carr, D-Wichita, responded: “How safe and secure can you feel if you are hungry?”
Carr introduced a separate amendment, which failed 31-85, that would earmark $500,000 to the Black Economic Union, a nonprofit organization of Black-owned businesses formed in the 1960s. The cash would be for purchase of land near the Missouri River once occupied by Quindaro Freedman’s School. In 1865, classes began for children of freed slaves in an area that eventually became part of Kansas City, Kansas. The school transitioned into Western University, but closed in 1943.
He recommended the money also finance a feasibility study on the possibility of creating a Black college or university in that location. Funding would have been drawn from $91 million dedicated to a new state employee portal.
This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.
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