Kansas veterans services director outlines budget needs and committee approves technical change in Senate Bill 327

The Kansas Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare spent the morning reviewing the Kansas Office of Veterans Services (KOVS) budget and voted to approve an amended technical change to Senate Bill 327.

Molly Pratt, fiscal analyst with the Legislative Research Department, told the committee the 2025 Legislature approved about $39.1 million for KOVS in FY2026, including $15.8 million from the State General Fund and $2.6 million from the State Institution Building Fund. Pratt said the agency’s budget includes three categories of reappropriations: operating/unencumbered funds (about $448,000), cemetery rehabilitation and repair projects (about $428,000), and a Veterans Claims Assistance Program (VCAP) grant reappropriation of $162,998.

Why it matters: committee members focused on how unspent salary and wage allocations are reappropriated and whether those monies should lapse back to the SGF when positions remain vacant. Senator Steve Owens pressed the…