District government-relations director warns major state tax and education bills unlikely before session end

Stuart Little, the Shawnee Mission School District’s government relations director, told the Board of Education on March 24 that the Kansas Legislature was in the conference-committee phase with days remaining in the regular session and that several proposals affecting school funding and local taxes were unresolved.

“Friday is the end of the regular session. They will, be done by the end of that day,” Little said, describing the schedule and the start of conference committee negotiations. He told the board the major items with direct implications for districts were property-tax growth limits, a series of income-tax proposals and negotiations over special-education funding.

The board heard that several competing proposals to limit assessed-valuation growth or cap property-tax increases were alive but unlikely to all pass both chambers. Little said one bill currently before legislators — referenced in the board briefing as “23 96” — applies to cities and counties but not to school districts as written today. He cautioned the board leadership not to assume the package of proposals could clear both chambers this week.

Why it matters: changes to property-tax law or to how revenue growth is limited would affect the amount of local revenue available to districts and the legislature’s ability to backfill revenue losses elsewhere in the state budget. Board members pressed Little on how limits on local taxation might interact with special-education funding and federal changes being discussed at the U.S. Department of Education.

Little said the governor’s budget recommendation had included $72 million in new special-education funding, but House committee action cut that to $10 million and the Senate committee added no new funding. He also described a Senate package that would remove roughly $11 million in current-year funding for programs such as professional development, teacher mentoring and CTE transportation and said that could require either returning funds or reduced allocations in future years if enacted.

On vouchers and scholarship expansions, Little summarized recent developments: a high-profile refundable tax-credit bill often described in debate as an $8,000-per-child refundable credit (identified in the briefing as Senate Bill 75) was not advancing this year; efforts to expand the nonpublic-school scholarship program and raise its cap (described as an attempted expansion from $10 million to $25 million) were struck from the House calendar and, in Little’s words, “killed” for this session.

Little also flagged other education-related bills that remained in play or could move in conference committee, including: - Senate Bill 47 (measures affecting meeting procedures and agenda control) — passed the Senate narrowly and is unlikely to advance this session, Little said. - Senate Bill 45 (changes to how graduation rates are calculated for students who transfer) — described as lower controversy and likely to be negotiated. - Senate Bill 288 (a bill limiting access to school property by certain offenders) — expected to be heard in a judiciary/education conference committee. - A late-filed measure associated with Senate Bill 275 that would require fetal development video presentations in health instruction — likely to be discussed in education conference committee.

Discussion vs. decision: the board’s hearing of Little was informational; no board action or formal position was taken at the meeting. The superintendent and board members discussed potential downstream impacts, with one trustee noting that limiting local property-tax authority while special-education funding remains uncertain could place districts in a difficult financial position.

Board context: Little told the Board he and district leaders continued to monitor negotiations, and he encouraged trustees to follow conference committee activity closely during the final days of the regular session.

Ending: The district will continue to track final conference committee and budget action, and district staff said they will update the board if changes that affect revenue or program funding move forward before the legislature reconvenes or finalizes the budget.