Kansas Senate falls one vote short of approving constitutional amendment on property taxes

BY: SHERMAN SMITH AND ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Senate President Ty Masterson asked lawmakers Wednesday to consider the hypocrisy of those who opposed a constitutional amendment to curtail rising property taxes by limiting increases in property valuations to 4% annually.

Democrats had raised concerns during debate on House Concurrent Resolution 5011 that the proposal would offer little or no relief on property tax bills while also complaining that it would lower state property tax collections that support school funding to the tune of $1 billion over five years.

“I hope that the body is absorbing the doublespeak, the hypocrisy of the conversation, the opposition,” Masterson said. “We’re both saying it does nothing, and it’s going to be so devastating we won’t even be able to fund our schools. I hope this is this is apparent to you that those are opposites, and the truth, like many things, is right in the middle. It’s not devastating change, but it’s real change.”

Despite his urging, the Senate failed to muster the two-thirds support needed to pass the resolution, falling one vote short. Five Republicans joined Democrats in opposition on a 26-14 vote.

The Senate vote effectively kills the resolution, although it could be revived by a motion to reconsider, or it could resurface under a different bill name before legislators close the books on the session at the end of the week.

Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican and the chair of the House Taxation Committee, said he fully expected the resolution to come to the House.

“I was kind of shocked that it didn’t,” Smith said.

He said he wasn’t fully in favor of the proposal but was willing to bring it to the floor for a vote. He was wary of the resolution’s cap on property appraisal increases. The cap, which increased from 3% to 4% during negotiations between the House and Senate, doesn’t do anything to limit the mill levies, he said. Under the proposal, valuation remains lower, but the levies continue to increase.

“You’re average taxpayer isn’t going to see actual tax relief,” Smith said.

During debate in the Senate, Sen. Ethan Corson, D-Fairway, questioned why negotiations between the Senate and House resulted in a change in placing the proposed constitutional amendment before voters in August 2026 instead of November 2025, as previously planned. If the bill offers true property tax relief, Corson wondered, why delay it?

The short answer: Sen. Caryn Tyson doesn’t play Uno.

Tyson, a Parker Republican, said she proposed the change — she didn’t explain why — and the House accepted. Then, she said, the House “asked me if I wanted to play my Uno card of reversal.”

“I don’t play Uno. So we stayed on. We agreed on August ’26,” Tyson said.

Corson said legislators have heard from “Kansans in every corner of the state about the desperate need for property tax relief.” Seniors and veterans are being forced out of their homes “because of sky high property taxes,” he said. And GOP leadership promised before the session that property tax relief would be a day one priority.

Now, he said, the Legislature is at the end of the session, and “we have done nothing meaningful on property tax relief.”

“We are putting politics over what is best for people. That’s what’s happening,” Corson said.

Corson and Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat, referenced projections produced by the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department of how the cap on property appraisals would impact school funding. The state assess 20 mills to finance public schools, and 1.5 mills for school buildings. According to the projections, the state would lose $1 billion in revenue for schools over five years, which would need to be offset by draining the State General Fund.

“Maybe that’s exactly what this body wants,” Holscher said. “Maybe we want to make it more difficult to fund our schools.”

But Tyson reiterated Masterson’s comments.

“We’re getting doublespeak,” Tyson said. “First, it doesn’t do anything for the taxpayers, and then, oh no, it’s going to break school funding and the state SGF. So you can’t have it both ways.”

The five Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat the resolution were Sen. Mike Argabright of Emporia, Sen. Tory Marie Blew of Great Bend, Sen. Brenda Dietrich of Topeka, Sen. Michael Fagg of El Dorado and Sen. Stephen Owens of Hesston.