ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Liberal has been working hard in recent years to make sure it has a voice in state politics, and Tuesday, the Liberal City Commission got to hear an update on some of those efforts from Watkins Public Strategies.
“As the commission is aware, Aug. 4 was when the primary elections took place, and people went to the polls and selected Roger Marshall as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and Adam Hamilton as the Democratic candidate. There’s going to be a lot of money invested in that race as voters make a decision in November in regard to that race,” Watkins Public Strategies Vice President Jessica Lucas said. “This is also the time when all of the statewide elections are going on, so Kansans will be electing a new governor, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, attorney general, and treasurer. The gubernatorial race will be between current Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and current Sen. Cindy Holscher, and that primary was pretty highly contested this time around, so we expect to keep hearing from them in the coming months. With the attorney general race, that will be a matchup between incumbent Kris Kobach and Chris Mann, and this is a repeat matchup from a few years ago. The insurance commissioner race will be between current Kansas Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins and current Sen. Dinah Sykes. With the state treasurer’s race, that is going to be between Steven Johnson and Juan Luengo, and the secretary of state race will be between Pat Proctor and Jennifer Day. All of those races will be happening, plus the 125 House races, in which Liberal’s Rep. Shannon Francis will be running unopposed. There are a lot of unknowns in the races, and we will definitely be keeping an eye on the results of all the races going on. After all of that is said and done, a few weeks afterward is when the senate majority and minority leaders will be chosen as well as a few other positions and committee positions.”
Fellow Watkins Public Strategies representative Nathanial Blank then talked about recent legislation.
“One of the major things that happened this past session was the renewal of STAR Bonds in House Bill 2466, which also included the enaction of the Kansas Sports Authority Act for the upcoming new Chiefs Stadium. That also extended the expiration date of STAR Bonds to July 1, 2031,” Blank said. “Discussion of taxes was also a big part of this past session, and many plans were kicked back and forth between the Kansas House and Kansas Senate. The Senate’s position was largely about constitutional amendments with a cap on value assessment. The last one that was passed out was House Bill 2043, which would have provided a protest petition to contest certain increases in property tax revenues and continuing reimbursement from the Taxpayer Notification Cost Fund for another five years. That did pass the Senate 27 to 13 and in the House 87 to 35, but was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly. It also would have provided a protest petition to contest a budget that exceeded inflation according to the Consumer Price Index for this region up to 3 percent per year. It also would have allowed Revenue Neutral Rate notices to be filled out and signed by the registered voters of a taxing subdivision and submitted as a signed protest petition. We don’t anticipate property taxes going away anytime soon, especially in the next session.”
And the work did not stop there, Blank said.
“Another bill that’s been repeatedly brought up the past couple years is commonly known as the No Impact Home-based Business Bill. That was in Senate Bill 197 and would prevent requiring licenses for businesses in homes that did not generate external parking, essentially,” Blank said. “We did work with other parties involved with that to reach a solution, but we just couldn’t come to one that was acceptable. It was passed in the House in 2025 but that conference committee report was not acted on this past session. There were also some local government bills the commission should be aware of, including House Sub for Senate Bill 244, which achieved national infamy and requires the designation of multiple-occupancy private spaces in public buildings for the use by one sex. House Bill 2378 enacts the Removal Of Squatters Act, which creates procedures for property owners to request law enforcement to remove unauthorized people from a dwelling unit by submitting a notarized affidavit. Senate Bill 391 prohibits any city or county from adopting or enforcing any ordinances or resolutions that prohibit landlords from refusing to lease privately owned residential or commercial property to a person because of their source of income that pays rent. Lastly was Senate Bill 418, which enacted the Buy Right Housing Development Act, which would provide a streamlined approval process for certain housing developments.”
In other new business, the commission approved the lobbying services agreement with Watkins Public Strategies as well as the 2026 Federal Funds Exchange. To conclude the meeting’s new business items, the commission also approved a proposal for a mill and overlay project on Western Avenue.
