GUEST COLUMN, Shannon Francis, 125th District Representative

Last week, I met Alexander Tah-ray Yui, who serves as ambassador from Taiwan to the United States. Ambassador Yui spoke with me briefly about the estimated $20 million investment Apogee Power, a Taiwan-based energy technology company, is making in Liberal by establishing its first U.S. battery manufacturing plant here. We also talked about the possibility of future complimentary investments by other Taiwanese companies in Liberal. Taiwan is very interested in expanding on their investments in the United States. Eli Svaty and the Seward County Development Corporation have done a great job building this relationship. Hopefully, there will be more new manufacturing businesses locating here in the near future as Taiwan expands investments in our country.

Last week was First Adjournment in the Kansas Legislature. That means the end of the regular portion of session. We’ll return on April 9 for a three-day veto session to override any vetoes from the Governor and take care of any last-minute business. Our legislative sessions are set in our Constitution to be 90 days. Kansas has what is considered a citizen legislature as opposed to other states that have full-time legislatures. I think Kansas does it right. Being a legislator shouldn’t be a career. The Kansas way means we spend most of our year back home in our districts, working our regular jobs, and being active in our communities. 

The flip side of that schedule is that while we are in session, it’s a sprint. And this past week was a series of long days and late nights. Thursday and Friday night we worked until around 1 a.m. putting the finishing touches on the state budget and property taxes, and passing out a number of other important bills that remain active in the process.

The budget

The only constitutional responsibility the Legislature has is to pass the budget. It is easy to vote against a budget. In a document this large, you can always find items that justify a no vote. At the same time, there are also reasons to justify a yes vote. Our responsibility is to govern, look at the full picture and make decisions based on what is most responsible for taxpayers and the future of our state.

My primary concern is making sure we slow the growth of spending and avoid setting ourselves up for problems down the road while still meeting the essential needs of our state, such as education, roads & bridges, and public safety. Government has grown quickly in recent years, and I believe it is our responsibility to take a measured approach that protects long-term stability.

For fiscal year 2027, we decreased State General Fund spending by $189 million. This is a meaningful step toward slowing the trajectory of government growth while still maintaining a positive ending balance. While doing this we also fully funded public schools and kept the Bank of KDOT closed.

HB 2513

HB 2513 also includes the following changes to the budget:

• Adds $49.8 million, including $18.9 million SGF, for a Medicaid capacity payment for nursing facilities of $15 per resident per day;

• Adds $56.5 million, including $15.0 million SGF, for the Children's Health Insurance Program;

• Adds $41.7 million, including $16.0 million SGF, to provide a 6.0 percent reimbursement rate increase for providers of HCBS Intellectual/Developmental Disability waiver services; Adds $40.0 million, including $15.0 million SGF, to cover the current HCBS Frail Elderly (FE) waiver services overages and to formally establish a waitlist for such waiver services;

• Adds $22.0 million, including $20.0 million SGF, and 336.0 FTE positions, to fund the first year of operations at the South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital;

• Adds $20.7 million SGF in funding for technical and community colleges;

• Adds $13.3 million, including $5.3 million SGF, to increase the Physical Disability agency directed personal care services from $19.52 per hour to $29 per hour and reduce the FE Level 3 Personal Care Services from $33.24 to $30 per hour;

• Adds $12.0 million SGF to increase expenditures for contract staffing at Larned State Hospital and Osawatomie State Hospital;

• Adds $11.0 million SGF for debt service payments for the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at the Kansas State University Veterinary Medical Center;

• Adds $10.0 million SGF for hospitals providing inpatient behavioral health services for adults;

• Adds $6.0 million SGF for Special Education State Aid.

• Add language allowing the State Fire Marshal to expend up to $250,000 towards rural fire departments for extraordinary expenses in state or federal disasters. This was inserted to aid our local fire departments for the fires that devastated our area earlier this year.

I want to be very clear about the long-term picture. If we do not continue to control spending, we will exhaust our State General Fund ending balance. At that point, the state would be left with difficult choices to cut spending more aggressively, expend the rainy day fund, or raise taxes. I do not believe raising taxes should be the answer, which is why I believe we need to stay disciplined now.

Overall, I supported this budget because it takes steps in the right direction. It reduces State General Fund spending, slows future growth of the budget, and maintains strong reserves. At the same time, it continues to fund the core services our families and businesses rely on.

Senate Sub. for HB 2745 was passed late Friday by the Senate then sent to the House. The Senate had already adjourned before the House could take it up. Therefore, the House really was left with the option to pass it and try to fix it next year or vote it down and make the people wait another year to be able to stop excessive property tax increases by local governments.

The bill would create a protest petition process for the adoption of local government budgets more than the prior year’s amount adjusted for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index for the Midwest Region, up to a maximum adjustment of 3 percent per year.

The bill would require the protest petitions to be maintained by county clerks. It also would require notice of the availability of such petitions to be provided in the clerk’s office and on the county’s website, if one exists, and on any social media maintained by the county clerk. County treasurers also would be required to provide notice of such petitions and make such petitions available. Petitions could be submitted to the county clerk or county treasurer.

If at least 10 percent of the registered voters in the taxing district as of January 1 of the current year sign the protest petition, the proposed budget would be deemed disapproved and the taxing jurisdiction would be limited to a budget with property tax amounts from the prior year.

I hope next year we can improve this bill by lowering the number of voters required for a successful protest petition to 5% of those in the last Secretary of State election or have the increase voted on at the primary election in August. I also think communities should be allowed to include new construction in the computation of an allowable increase by local governments.