Committee concurs with Secretary of State budget; office flags fee reductions and a separate SGF request for e-rulemaking

The Committee on General Government Budget voted to concur with the Legislative Research Department—s recommendations for the Kansas Secretary of State—s FY2025 and FY2026 budgets after hearing agency staff describe a fee-funded operating plan and several election and technology initiatives.

Arianna Waddell, fiscal analyst for the Legislative Research Department, summarized the Secretary of State—s budget request: the agency seeks about $8.6 million and 42 FTE for FY2025, an increase of roughly $1.5 million (21.8 percent) over the 2024 approved amount. Waddell said the budget is funded primarily through the information and service fee fund, the technology communication fee fund and federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grants; the FY2025 submission included a revised estimate that adds federal HAVA election-security grant spending and increases contractual services and salary costs.

Jennifer Cook, assistant secretary of state, said the agency is 100 percent fee funded for routine operations and that the largest single revenue source is an online biannual report filing fee. To reduce growing fee balances, Cook said the agency proposes cutting the portion it retains from $20 to $10 for the online biannual filing, which she estimated would reduce fee revenue to the agency by about $1,000,000 annually. "We're proposing to reduce that fee that we receive for online biannual filings from $20 to $10. So that would be a cut of a $1,000,000 per year," Cook said.

Cook and staff described recent HAVA grants used for county election security and training. Waddell and Jennifer Cook said the agency has spent HAVA funds on cybersecurity, software maintenance and a one-time physical-security grant that helped 84 counties with improved locks, storage and cameras for election equipment. Waddell noted the statewide voter-registration database (ELPAS or the database used by counties) carries approximately $700,000 in associated expenditures and county officials perform the day-to-day roll maintenance.

Separately, the Secretary of State—s office said it intends to seek a one-time State General Fund appropriation to modernize the state regulation-making process. Cook said an RFP for an electronic regulation-management system is under way and that the agency estimates a first-year statewide cost of about $1,500,000; the agency did not include that request in the base budget and said it would seek the appropriation through the appropriations committee if the committee wished. "Our goal and what we're working toward is to create an electronic regulation process," Cook said, adding the RFP estimated the first-year cost at $1,500,000.

Representative Amick moved and Representative Riley seconded a motion to concur with the Legislative Research Department—s recommendation for the Secretary of State budget. Representative Turk offered and the maker accepted a substitute that asked the House Appropriations Committee to consider the Secretary of State—s separate SGF request for the regulation modernization project. The motion, as amended, passed unanimously.