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Latest Stories
House passes K-12 bill
The House on Thursday passed 75-48 a $6.4 billion K-12 education finance bill that allows private or home-schooled students who don’t attend public schools to participate in public school-based sporting and other events overseen by the Kansas State High School Activities Association and lets districts pay school board members, who currently are elected to those …
Bulletin
View MoreKansas Democrats elect Repass
Kansas Democrats this afternoon elected Jeanna Repass, Overland Park, as chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, 122-107 over former state Sen./ Lt. Gov./State Treasurer Lynn Rogers, Wichita. The vote at a packed Washington Days Democrat convention at Ramada by Wyndham Topeka Downtown saw Repass, an unsuccessful candidate for secretary of state in the 2022 election, …
Brown narrowly wins GOP chair
Kansas Republicans late this afternoon elected Mike Brown, Overland Park, as chair of the Kansas Republican Party over longtime party worker and official Helen Van Etten, Topeka. Vote was 90 to 88 for Brown, closest vote for a party leader in recent memory. The Brown victory brought his entire team to run the party which …
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We’re thrilled to announce that Hawver’s Capitol Report (HCR) — which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year—has become part of a growing national team of reporters and editors covering state governments around the country! We’ve joined State Affairs, a digital news company with a mission to be the trusted source of non-partisan news on state …
Newsletter
View MoreIt’s ESG week in Senate
The Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee this week will spend two or three days grappling with one of the most complicated — and politically divisive — issues of the year: Prohibiting Environmental/Social/Governance (ESG)-based investment of government funds. The issue deals with the liberal-to-moderate political leanings of some investment advisers to put state surplus funds …
Where’s the Kansas Legislature headed?
Turnaround Day has pretty well described just where the Legislature is headed this session, with miniscule tax cuts for the poor and sizable cuts for the middle income-or-better and a new direction for discouraging abortions that the Kansas Supreme Court has held as a basic constitutional right of women. There is also a clear direction …
It’s Turnaround Week
After six weeks of committee hearings and debate, most House and Senate bills have to be voted out of their originating chambers across the rotunda to the opposite house by Friday. Dozens of bills in each chamber must move this week, save for those from House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means and both chambers’ …
GOP swings further right
The Kansas Republican Party leadership moved further to the right this weekend, with the 90-88 election of Mike Brown, Overland Park, over former Republican National Committeewoman Helen Van Etten, Topeka, at the annual GOP convention. The effect of the razor-thin victory is that the party likely will be less attractive to its members who believe …
Week 5: Some action, finally
The Legislature opens the fifth week of the session with some actual – though not stirring – bills to debate, and finally filling committee hearings with actual discussion of bills, not explanations of how state government works. Senate Tax opens hearings on Social Security taxes – at what Kansas-taxable income the SS exemption ends, and …