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 agency for vacancy counts and questioned the practice of repurposing salary savings; Pratt and agency staff said many vacancies are at the Soldiers’ Home and Veterans’ Home, primarily in nursing-care units, and turnover at the homes runs roughly 20–25 percent.

Bill Turner, executive director of Kansas Veterans Services, said the agency used some reappropriated administrative dollars to cover moving costs as it relocates from Jayhawk Tower to the Landon State Office Building and that transferred VCAP dollars were carried forward because partner organizations did not program those funds in FY2025. Turner said the KOVS-assisted claims effort led to roughly $525 million paid to Kansas veterans in FY2025 and noted the broader VA compensation and pension picture approaches $1.2 billion, figures he described as evidence of the agency’s outreach and claims work.

On capital and facilities, Pratt and Turner described SIBF reappropriations tied to the planned new veterans home in Topeka (the state previously appropriated $17.2 million toward the project). Turner said design work is complete but federal matching funds remain uncertain; the agency’s federal priority listing was described as toward the bottom of the priority group, which limits near-term access to grant matches. Pratt also described a $1.4 million plan for expansion of cremation gardens at the Winfield Veterans Cemetery funded from the state cemetery grants fund after federal grant approval, and a demolition item of about $798,000 for structures at the Soldiers’ Home that remains in reappropriation.

Committee action: the chair introduced Senate Bill 327, which would modify statutory language that currently prescribes specific months for the Bob Bethel joint committee to meet. Senator Thompson moved to adopt a balloon amendment that replaces fixed months with ‘‘once each quarter’’ language and specifies two consecutive days of meetings during the third and fourth quarters; Senator Clifford seconded the amendment. Members approved the amendment by voice vote and then voted favorably on the bill as amended.

What’s next: no roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript; the committee approved the amendment and reported the bill favorably. The chair adjourned the committee at the conclusion of the action.

Quotes: "I will be presenting the budget request for the Kansas Office of Veteran Services," Molly Pratt said in opening the briefing. "We do about 131 outreach events this past year," Bill Turner said, adding that KOVS-assisted claims led to "about $525,000,000" paid to Kansas veterans in FY2025. "If that money has been expended for other things, then how is it ultimately taken back at the end of 26?" Senator Steve Owens asked during questioning about lapsed salaries.

Ending: The committee completed the budget briefing and then took and approved the amendment and the bill (Senate Bill 327 as amended) before adjourning.