House Committee on Taxation approves introductions for multiple tax-related bills at first 2026 meeting

The House Committee on Taxation convened its first tax meeting of the 2026 legislative session and, without objection, approved a slate of bill requests introducing a range of tax changes.

Representative Hohisel introduced three requests on behalf of Catalyst and himself: RS 26RS2702, described as concerned with property taxation and proposing that certain natural-gas storage facilities not be classified as public utilities for property-tax purposes; RS 26RS2604, to add compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas to the list of alternative fuels eligible for an income-tax credit for alternative-fueled motor-vehicle property expenditures; and a third request (transcription shows RS number 262666) to authorize cities and counties to adopt a local ordinance setting the local sales tax on food to 0% where a local sales tax is levied. Representative Hohisel said he was "very prepared" to answer questions about the first measure.

Representative Corbett introduced RS 26RS2642, which he described as a proposal requiring that a property-tax increase be initiated by an elected official or an elected party organization or go through county commissioners or city councils, rather than by entities the public cannot readily identify. "There's a lot of people putting dollars on our set on our property tax that most of our constituents have no idea who they are," Corbett said.

Representative Bryce introduced two requests. RS 26RS2521 (sponsored on behalf of Representatives Dale Helwig and Webster Roth) has two parts: a homestead provision that would limit changes to senior (age 65 and older) residential property taxes by tying them to a base year, and a provision allowing county commissions discretion to remove property-tax-exempt status from certain health-care properties that compete with comparable nonexempt uses. The second, 2026 RS2649, would give health-care-sharing ministries tax treatment similar to traditional insurance for income-tax purposes.

The chair introduced RS 26RS2748 on behalf of the Kansas County Appraisers Association Oil and Gas Committee to exclude owners of certain low-production oil and gas leases from filing exemption requests at BOTA, saying the change is intended to reduce caseload for what the chair called a formality. Eric Stafford of the Kansas Chamber offered a public comment and introduced RS 26RS2566 as a cleanup follow-up to last year’s single-factor apportionment bill.

All requests were approved by the committee "without objection," and there were no roll-call votes on any of the introductions. The meeting included routine administrative guidance—reminders to avoid serial communications and not to use "reply all," camera placement for media and microphone protocol—and a brief introduction by a new member, Representative Carolyn Kahar, who said she represents House District 33 and is mayor of Edwardsville.

The committee did not take policy votes on the merits of any of the bills at this meeting; the chair said he does not anticipate Friday-afternoon meetings and then adjourned the session.

Next steps: the approved bill requests will be assigned RS numbers and referred for drafting and future committee consideration; the committee did not set substantive hearings on the measures during this introductory session.