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Sedgwick County lobbyists report wins, unfinished bills after shortened 2025 Kansas legislative session
Summary
County lobbyists and staff told commissioners the 2025 session produced several wins for Sedgwick County—changes to election dates, targeted funding for seniors, hospitals and IDD services, and a child-care reorganization—while several priority items (juvenile justice, cremains law and long-term sales-tax apportionment) remain unresolved.
Sedgwick County officials and their lobbyists told the county Board of Commissioners on April 23 that the shortened 90-day 2025 Kansas legislative session produced a mix of enacted items that the county supports and several unfinished priorities that will carry into next year.
Jessica Lucas of Walken Public Strategies, the county’s contracted lobby group, briefed commissioners alongside colleagues Jason Watkins and Nathaniel Blank and Tanya Cole, the county’s assistant county manager. Lucas said the calendar change and a new budget process were among the session’s biggest differences this year.
“The legislature ran on its own foundational budget and did it in a compressed calendar,” Lucas said, noting many committee and floor calendars moved faster than usual. She listed enacted laws and budget additions the county supported: a change fixing March, August and November as allowable election dates (House Bill 2022); funding for in-home services and senior nutrition; money for hospitals to cover psychiatric care pending the county’s mental health hospital; and investments in intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) services that add services for people on waiting lists and raise reimbursement rates.
Lucas also told the board that House Bill 2045, reorganizing child-care programs into a single state agency and easing some workforce requirements, passed and could improve affordability and access.
But county leaders said several high-priority items remain unfinished. Lucas said House Bill 2275—intended as a short-term fix to apportion the county 1% sales tax when mill levies change—was sent to the governor but will only freeze apportionment rules through Dec. 31, 2026. The county plans to convene the Kansas Association of Counties and the League of Municipalities to negotiate a longer-term formula this summer.
“We are taking responsibility for convening those conversations,” Lucas said. Chairman Ryan Beatty said Sedgwick County should have a seat on any committee that develops the permanent formula.
Two other priority bills did not reach final enactment: a cremains-processing bill (House Bill 2331) that passed the House but was not finished in the Senate, and a juvenile-justice reform bill (House Bill 2329) that requires more Senate work. Lucas said the county will press these issues again in 2026.
Commissioners pressed lobbyists about the Astra proposal (Senate Bill 82), a property‑tax-related funding idea that passed the House but had not become law. Commissioner Howe asked whether the Astra proposal and other property-tax fixes replicate existing flawed formulas; county staff and lobbyists said the mechanics of those proposals warrant close review before they are advanced.
“There's a lot just to keep our eyes on,” Lucas told the board, adding that budget-planning conversations at the legislature are starting earlier (as soon as September) and the county should prepare requests in advance.
The county’s lobbyists also reported success in getting language changes into open‑records and bank-priority legislation and said the housing tax-credit program was reduced and given a sunset. Commissioners praised Walken Public Strategies and county staff for their work during the compressed session.
The board voted to receive and file the report from the lobbyists.
