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Appropriations panel restores Commerce reappropriations, orders one‑year STAR Bond transparency review
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Summary
The House Appropriations Committee approved the Department of Commerce budget for FY2026–27 with restored reappropriations (including airplane MRO and tourism funds) and added a proviso requiring a one‑year review of STAR Bond districts’ net sales‑tax movement, to be reported to budget and commerce committees by June 30, 2027.
Chair Mosher presented the Kansas Department of Commerce budget and the House Appropriations Committee approved the Commerce Committee’s proposed budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, as amended.
The committee restored several reappropriations the special committee had deleted, including $34 million in SGF for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) projects — $33 million earmarked for Celina and $1 million for Topeka — a $500,000 restore for home‑based childcare providers, $50,000 for Advantage Kansas and $145,744 for travel and tourism tied to upcoming anniversaries. Mosher told members the agency’s revised 2026 request totals $226,600,000, including $51,200,000 in state general fund (SGF), and represents a roughly 4.9% reduction from the amount approved by the 2025 legislature. He also described language to lapse funding for any EDIF‑funded FTE vacant part or all of the fiscal year, aligning EDIF vacancy treatment with current SGF vacancy lapse rules.
Representative Regina Walsinger moved — and Representative Vestas seconded — a proviso asking the Department of Commerce to produce a one‑year transparency report on STAR Bond districts. The measure asks for data on the number and effect of businesses that moved into STAR Bond districts during the year, cumulative sales‑tax revenue attributable to those moves, and projected deficits to state sales‑tax collections caused by such migration. "It's just asking for some transparency for 1 year," Walsinger said when introducing the amendment.
Lawmakers debated scope and intent. Supporters said the report would reveal whether sales tax that otherwise would flow to the state is instead captured by STAR Bond districts to pay bonds; skeptics questioned whether a single year would show a trend and asked whether the report should also capture businesses leaving STAR Bond districts. Chair Tarwater and others said the language will be moved into STAR Bond bill text in the upcoming bill process and broadened to include businesses exiting districts, if necessary. Mosher confirmed the EDIF fund remained positive after the adjustments, with an ending balance of about $1,557,847.
After discussion, the committee approved the proviso and later passed Chair Mosher’s motion that the committee accept the Commerce Committee’s budget as amended. Representative Estes seconded that motion; the committee voted aye to approve the budget.
The committee did not adopt penalties as part of the proviso; members said the immediate goal is transparency and better information for future budget and statutory decisions. The report is due to the House Committee on Appropriations and Commerce, Labor and Economic Development and to relevant Senate committees by June 30, 2027.
What happens next: the Commerce budget and the proviso language will be reconciled through conference processes; if STAR Bond statute language is enacted later that covers the same ground, the budget proviso is to be negated.
