Kansas Legislature 2025: MORE secret meetings, legislators seek judicial power, special education, and more! 🚨

Video Script

Intro
I’m Davis Hammet with Loud Light. Here’s what happened in week 8 in the Kansas Statehouse.

Sup. Court Constitutional Amendment (SCR1611)
The constitutional amendment to turn Judges into elected partisan politicians passed the Senate by a single vote on Thursday. Senate President Ty Masterson argued this would give the people a voice, but then voted to move the public vote on the amendment from the high-turnout November general election to the low-turnout August primary in 2026. In a leaked video, House Majority Leader Chris Croft, who was instrumental in gerrymandering the state to ensure a Republican supermajority, promised supporters that Republicans were working to overhaul the court system in order to undo the Court’s bodily autonomy ruling that allows citizens to make their own healthcare decisions. Since the 2010 federal ruling that legalized unlimited corporate money in politics, Republicans have held supermajorities in the House and Senate making the Courts the only real check on their power. The Governor cannot veto constitutional amendments so the final step before going on the ballot is a House vote which could happen any day now.

Legislature Targets Court with Budget
In an effort to offset the cost of tax cuts passed in 2024, the legislature’s budget proposes a 1.5% across the board spending cut including in the judicial branch. Chief Justice Marla Luckert testified this week asking legislators to reconsider the cut as it would have a “significant impact” in courthouse operations and comes as rural courts in the state are struggling to find employees– a situation Associate Justice KJ Wall describes as “approaching constitutional crisis”. While the Judiciary is a separate and equal branch of government to the Legislature, cutting the judiciary budget became common during Gov. Brownback’s reign. Beyond staffing, the Court is still grappling with the costs of cyber security infrastructure following cyber attacks on the court information system. 

Three Day Grace Period to Governor (SB4)
Rep. Proctor’s bill to throw out thousands of mail ballots every year solely because of federal mail delays was scheduled to go into Senate-House negotiations, but suddenly the Senate reconsidered and passed the House’s version of the bill. While legislative actions are supposed to be public, it appears Sen. Thompson and Rep. Proctor met in private to negotiate their differences instead of in a public conference committee. The trend of backroom deal making replacing public debate and bill motivations only being known when secret meeting recordings are leaked is increasingly becoming the norm in the Kansas Statehouse. A veto by the Governor of the bill is expected and an ensuing veto override attempt could happen anytime in the coming weeks.

Special Education Funding
While working on the K-12 budget, the Senate Education Committee had heated exchanges over how to deal with special education funding. Federal law requires special education services for students with disabilities, but the legislature has not fully funded those services since 2011 when Republicans first gained supermajorities in both chambers. When the education committee showed up for a second day of school budget debates, the Chair Sen. Renee Erickson presented a new proposal she claimed was what the committee had discussed. Committee members pushed back and Erickson admitted that she had privately made new adjustments overnight that cut a variety of programs, reduced special education funding, and that her proposal would now be the committee’s official recommendation. As members continued to press her on the discrepancies and lack of transparency, Erickson got visibly frustrated saying they were moving on and any member continuing to scrutinize her unilateral actions would be ruled out of order.

Coming Up
We are now 2/3rds through the 2025 legislative session. Rumors are swirling that U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall plans to take a job in the Trump administration which would create a vacancy. Monday, the House will debate a bill to strip the Governor of her authority to appoint such a vacancy and instead give the authority to Republican officials. Be sure to sign up at loudlight.org to get updates right to your inbox. Stay tuned, stay engaged, and until next time, thank you so much Kansas!