ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The state of Kansas saw a lot of changes throughout 2025, and as Gov. Laura Kelly tells it, there is a lot to be proud of from last year.
“There were a lot of good things that happened in 2025 which I'm very proud of. The first thing was finally completely eliminating the sales tax on food, which was a great way to start the year. We also continued to focus like a laser on economic development, we had another record-breaking year including coming to a deal to move the Kansas City Chiefs football team to Wyandotte County, which has been in the works for a long time,” Gov. Kelly said. “We were also able to establish the Office of Early Childhood, which has been on my agenda for the past several years, and I'm very glad we were able to get that done and start operations there. There are also some projects that have seen some projects but are still being worked on and finalized we're very excited about.”
The formation of the Office of Early Childhood was a particular point of pride, Gov. Kelly said.
“My initial goal was to make the Office of Early Childhood a Cabinet-level position – I believe early childhood programs and services are absolutely vital to the future of Kansas, so I wanted that to be elevated, but in working things out with the Kansas Legislature, we were at least able to establish the office,” Gov. Kelly said. “That office will house all of the state's early childhood programs that are scattered throughout multiple agencies and entities throughout the state government at the moment, and I'm looking forward to having all of them under that one Office of Early Childhood umbrella. We've recently hired a wonderful director for that office who came on board at the start of 2026 to be in charge of the day-to-day operations so when everything goes live in July, it'll all be ready to go.”
Also seeing progress in 2025 was the state’s water plan, which Gov. Kelly said she is also proud of.
“Making progress on the water plan feels really good – several years ago, in my budget, I fully funded the state water plan for the first time in 15 years or so, so that was a great start. Then, the next year, the Kansas Legislature came back and fully funded that plus another $30 million and continued that work, so we've invested at least another $90 million above the usual amounts,” Gov. Kelly said. “It's been very good to be able to tackle projects like that which have been neglected for a long time. Even more exciting, however, the Kansas Legislature created the water program task force to help create a long-term investment program for water with a dedicated revenue source, which will be similar to the state’s rolling 10-year transportation programs. That task force will also evaluate current funding for water and the state’s water planning statutes, submitting reports detailing its findings to the governor and the Kansas Legislature in 2026 and 2027. That task force will include 13 voting members spearheaded by a bipartisan group of legislators and out of those 13 voting members, six members will be Kansans appointed by legislative leadership. The task force also includes a five-member water planning work group, which is tasked with reviewing and modernizing the State Water Resources Planning Act.”
While she considers 2025 an overall success, Gov. Kelly said there were also a few disappointments.
“If I have one major disappointment from 2025, it's the Kansas Legislature's approach to budgeting. They decided they wanted to put together their own budget instead of mine, which I'm statutorily bound to do, and I also have the tools and resources to do so in the state's executive branch,” Gov. Kelly said. “However, the Legislature decided to take that upon themselves, and I think the result has the potential to create some major problems going forward. I'm hoping we can correct some of that in this coming Legislative session – for example, they included a tax plan that has the potential to do some very serious damage to the budget and instead of paying cash for capital projects, they've decided to go back to bonding for projects, which means we'll ultimately pay more overall. I'm hoping they'll reconsider some things as we go into this next session. I'd also like to see the Legislature consider putting in some additional funding for Special Education.”
Gov. Kelly also talked about another recent development that should be effective for Southwest Kansas.
“Specifically for the Southwest Kansas area, the state did recently receive its allotment from the Rural Health Transformation Program, and since there will be some very substantial cuts to Medicaid because of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' that will go into effect later this year, there was thankfully some money set aside to help with rural health,” Gov. Kelly said. “We will be looking to implement those programs throughout the rural parts of the state to help shore up the rural health system and transform it so it can continue providing care to people in those areas.”
With 2025 now in the books, Gov. Kelly said she is excited to see what 2026 will bring.
“Along with having a fiscally responsible and balanced budget, I want to also make sure we don't take our eyes off of economic development. One of the reasons we've been so successful and able to fully fund our schools and roads and even consider a water plan, all of that is possible because we've been able to really focus on economic development and make so much happen,” Gov. Kelly said. “I want to stay focused on that so I leave the state in good hands after I finish my term. With the Office of Early Childhood, when I was campaigning back in 2017 or 2018, I said I wanted my legacy to include a robust early childhood education system in place, and I feel like we can definitely do that. Also, getting a water plan in place is great – we're not going to fully solve that issue while I'm still governor, but having a plan in place will allow us to focus and finance the projects and programs that will be needed to ensure water sustainability after I leave office. I'm really proud of what we've been doing so far, and I would love to see us keep that momentum going so the state is in solid shape when I leave office.”
