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House adopts Senate substitute for HB 2745, tightening rules around property-tax notices and protest petitions
Summary
The Kansas House voted 63-59 to concur in the Senate substitute for House Bill 2745, a property-tax measure that shifts the notice and protest process toward a revenue-neutral framework and ties annual allowable tax increases to inflation (CPI) rather than a flat 3% cap, while raising thresholds for successful protest petitions.
Representative Adam Smith moved the House to concur in the Senate substitute for House Bill 2745, describing the measure as a property-tax relief bill intended to limit year-over-year increases by local governments and to make notices easier to understand. "We kind of renamed the revenue neutral rate the revenue neutral process to a property tax estimate," Smith said, adding the Senate reinstated the revenue-neutral process and replaced the House's 3% increase cap with inflation (Midwest CPI) not to exceed 3%.
Smith explained substantive differences between the chambers: the House version included a 3% cap with enumerated exclusions (new construction, bonds, certain economic-development valuations), while the Senate version uses an inflation measure with no adjustment for new construction and a more stringent protest-petition remedy that would, if successful, return a jurisdiction to revenue neutral rather than the House's 3% fallback.
Representative Sawyer questioned and criticized the Senate changes, saying the Senate's approach "is too harsh on cities, particularly we have growing areas" and that removing new-construction exclusions would be especially difficult for fast-growing municipalities. Sawyer argued the amendment shifts taxes rather than cutting them, warning of mill-levy increases that could raise motor-vehicle taxes as well.
Representative Carmichael, Representative Blex and others asked clarifying questions about who may sign revenue-neutral notices and whether tenants or registered voters who do not own property may validly sign; Smith said the Senate amendment requires signers to be registered voters in the taxing jurisdiction.
After debate, the clerk opened and closed the roll for final action. With 63 voting in favor and 59 against, the House recorded a constitutional majority and declared passage of the motion to concur in the Senate substitute for HB 2745.
What happens next: Because the House concurred in the Senate substitute, the conference-substituted version will proceed according to legislative procedure; the bill's provisions (including the revenue-neutral mechanism, protest-petition thresholds, and the temporary reimbursement fund extended through 2031) remain central to implementation discussions.
