Kansas lawmakers pass some property tax reform, but Republican infighting stalls more
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Bill lets petitions force budgets back to prior-year spending levels.
- A proposed 9% valuation cap failed to win the needed supermajority.
- Lawmakers will revisit property tax reform during April veto session.
In a dramatic series of votes on Friday evening, Kansas lawmakers passed one property tax reform bill but failed to advance a constitutional amendment proposal aimed at limiting year-over-year valuation increases to single digits.
The bill that passed the Senate 22-18 and the House 63-59 on the last day of the legislative session would establish a mechanism for voters to scrap local government budgets that call for spending more money than they did the year before.
If at least 10% of registered voters in a given county, city, school district or other taxing jurisdiction signed a protest petition, local leaders would be forced to cut spending back to the same level as the previous year.
But the centerpiece of the property tax reform that lawmakers have been promising for the last two years — a ballot measure to address soaring assessment values — remained elusive. Legislative leaders vowed to try again when they reconvene in two weeks for the veto session.
Despite that setback, House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, touted the protest petition legislation as “a major step toward reining in out-of-control local spending.”
“This bill finally puts taxpayers in control. If local governments want to raise property taxes beyond reasonable limits, Kansans now have a direct path to step in and stop it,” said Hawkins, who is running for insurance commissioner, in a statement shortly after the vote.
The bill now goes to Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, who could sign it into law, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature. Two Senate Democrats voted for the protest petition bill, but not one of the 37 Democrats in the House followed suit.
The bill didn’t pass either chamber with a veto-proof majority. To muster the supermajority necessary to override a veto, GOP leaders would have to pick up 21 votes in the House and five in the Senate.
Property tax protest petition
The bill factors in inflation, allowing local governments to increase their budgets annually by the lesser of 3% or the Midwest Consumer Price Index for the preceding year without opening themselves up to a budget challenge.
However, if at least 10% of registered voters within a given taxing jurisdiction signed a petition — a figure that could range from dozens of voters to tens of thousands — state law would prevent the new budget from increasing even to account for inflation.
Sen. Bill Clifford, a Garden City Republican and former Finney County commissioner, said he voted against the protest petition plan in part because it lends itself to the tyranny of the minority.
“What I see happening is a very activist, vocal minority will get this petition every single time on the school, on the community college, on the county, on the city — whether it’s good policy or not,” Clifford said.
The bill was also opposed by Rep. Tom Sawyer, the ranking Democrat on the House tax committee, who supported the original version of the bill that passed the chamber in February.
The Senate amendments made the bill “too harsh on cities,” he said, pointing to the elimination of a provision that would have allowed local governments to tax construction and new growth without impacting their spending limit.
Kansas property taxes are driven by three major factors — the property’s appraised value, the percentage of the appraised value that’s taxed (the assessed value) and the mill levy. Counties, cities, and school districts each set their mill levy, with one mill constituting $1 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
Valuation cap falls through
Any constitutional amendment proposal would need to win the support of two-thirds of members in both chambers to go to the voters in August or November.
But Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate find themselves at a familiar impasse, bitterly divided over which approach to take.
After a series of at-times contentious meetings this week, the two chambers’ negotiators emerged Friday morning with a potential compromise to cap valuation increases at 9% or a lesser percentage, as determined by the Legislature next year if the ballot measure succeeds.
The average residential appraisal increase for Johnson County was approximately 6% in 2026, and the average increase for Wyandotte County homes was roughly 8.5%.
The 9% cap that failed Friday would have applied to properties classified as residential, commercial and agricultural. It would have turned back the clock on properties’ assessed values to 2024 levels in 2027. Tax benefits would have stayed with the new owner upon the transfer of a property.
But instead of bringing the amendment resolution to a vote late Friday evening, the Senate adjourned until April 9.
“Would I like to see it be done? Absolutely,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican who’s running for governor. “But I’m not going to be out there all depressed if it doesn’t happen the way I wanted it to.”
The House proceeded to vote down the amendment resolution 59-63 — 25 votes short of the necessary supermajority.
Rep. Clarke Sanders, a Salina Republican, made the case during debate that the explanatory language proposed to appear on the ballot was too dense. The tax conference committee had agreed on a nearly 500-word explanation.
“Would it be fair to say that somebody who is not a tax nerd is going to read this and understand it?” Sanders asked Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican who chairs the House tax committee.
“No comment,” Smith responded.
With all 125 House seats up for re-election this year, April’s veto session will be the last opportunity in 2026 for lawmakers to reach an agreement on a property tax amendment proposal.
This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 3:03 PM with the headline "Kansas lawmakers pass some property tax reform, but Republican infighting stalls more."
