Throughout the 2026 Kansas legislative session, electors have introduced and passed their regular flurry of bills and statutes that impact every area of everyday life, but specifically, property taxes. The session began on Monday, Jan. 12, and recently wrapped up in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 28. The House Committee on Taxation introduced a specific bill, House Bill 2745, on Friday, Feb. 6, that brings a new power of petition to residents of various governing bodies. In the new piece of legislation, now named Senate Substitute for HB 2745, it states that whenever a governing body proposes a budget that surpasses the Midwest Consumer Price Index (CPI), it invokes this bill and begins the process of petition.
If the proposed budget surpasses CPI, the county clerk is tasked with creating and dispersing these protest petitions. Then, if the petition is signed by at least 10% of the registered voters of a taxing subdivision, it will shut down the governing body’s proposal and mark it as “disapproved” by residents. Once this disapproval happens, it forces the elected officials to submit a new budget at a revenue-neutral rate and cannot exceed the previous year’s budget. Cloud County Commission Chairman Mike Cleveland said that it wouldn’t impact the county’s budget much, since he and his fellow commissioners work toward staying close to a revenue-neutral rate as much as possible.
“We’re trying to craft a budget, and I don’t know where it’s going to come in yet, but we’re going to be as frugal as we can be and still provide the services that people want,” Cleveland said. “Because when you start cutting now, we’re down to the point where anything we cut is probably cutting a service.” According to a Kansas Reflector article published on Tuesday, March 31, Sen. Bill Clifford, a Garden City Republican, voiced his concern about the new piece of legislation and how it could impact cities. “We are not allowing those entities to be able to have the flexibility of knowing their local situation way better than we do here at Topeka in order to make those adjustments,” Sen. Clifford said. “I really see this as an opportunity for tyranny of the minority.”
Another senator, Lansing Republican Sen. Jeff Klemp, responded more positively to the new piece of legislation, according to that same Kansas Reflector article, and pushed back against Sen. Clifford’s statement. “Can they raise the mill rates to whatever they want? They have to sell that,” Sen. Klemp said. “When we have that conversation around the tyranny of a minority, I don’t think those words are inaccurate, but it’s not as imbalanced as what it seems.” Even though this bill passed both chambers of the Kansas Legislature, it still awaits a signature or veto from Governor Laura Kelly, which begins the annual veto session on Thursday, April 9. With the votes it passed at, 22-18 in the Senate and 63-59 in the House, it seems to lack the votes to be veto-proof.
Legislators have a magnifying glass on residential taxes, where in the same session two other bills were proposed, discussed and voted on also regarding property tax collections and assessments. The Senate generated these pieces of legislation, including Senate Bill 488 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 1603. The first, also named the Kansas Property Tax Freedom Act of 2026, would create a constitutional amendment for the state that would phase down property taxes throughout 2026 and 2027 and prohibit governing bodies from levying property taxes in 2028. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1603 would have amended section one of article 11 of the state constitution to limit property tax valuation increases. The concurrent resolution required a two-thirds majority vote, which failed, while House members voted against SB 488.
After Thursday, April 9, Kansans and local municipalities will have a clearer image of the next steps for Kansas property taxes due to the veto session that will ultimately determine what is passed into law and what failed.
