Kansas Senate

Bid to punish House GOP lawmakers triggers backlash against ‘political theater’

Two Kansas medical professionals sat for an hour at an early morning committee hearing in mid-March, waiting their turn to speak out against a bill. One drove two hours to attend. Neither got a chance to talk.

The bill, which resembles a package Gov. Laura Kelly previously vetoed, effectively limits annual spending increases by local governments to 3% or the inflation rate, whichever is smaller.

Kansas lawmakers are on their annual break and will return next week to vote on potentially overriding the governor's vetoes.

The resolution, which would have been on the August ballot for voters to decide, limits the assessed valuation of residential, commercial, and agricultural property from jumping more than 9% in any one year.

Bill clears liquor businesses to run 23 hours a day, removes local barriers to home rentals

Senate majority leader’s amendment forbid sports on Sundays, Wednesday evenings

A proposed bill would allow governments to privately award higher-value construction contracts for county buildings, bridges, highways, dams, turnpikes and parking lots.

Legislators share frustration with inaction on two bills tied to pricing of medicine

Under a bill that also mandates teaching students about the dangers of communism and socialism, high school freshmen would be required to take a 100-question exam based on the civics test that prospective U.S. citizens take during the American naturalization process.