Kansas governor vetoes protest petition bill; rolls out new property tax proposal
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes GOP protest petition bill, citing harm to local communities
- Kelly unveils three-part tax plan: $250 vehicle credit, local reward fund
- Plan doubles 20-mill school levy exemption to $150,000, with State General Fund offset
Accusing Republicans of making empty promises about property tax relief, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday vetoed a controversial protest petition proposal and released her own tax plan.
Kelly’s reform package was rolled out in tandem with a veto and scathing rebuke of a GOP bill that would have empowered 10% of voters in cities, counties and school districts to reject budgets that spend more than the previous year.
“Kansans deserve real property tax relief,” said Kelly, a Democrat, in her veto message. “For several years the Legislature has claimed to make delivering that relief their top priority and yet they have not been successful in delivering on that promise.”
She said that since the Legislature passed the bill in March, multiple school districts and local governments around the state have been notified that their bond sales were canceled because of underwriters’ concerns about the financial unpredictability that protest petitions could create.
“The harm this bill causes local communities is real,” Kelly said. “The Legislature would be wise to focus their efforts on partnering with local elected officials to develop real property tax relief for Kansans, as opposed to shutting them out of the process and passing faulty legislation.”
House Bill 2745 would only allow local budgets to grow by 3% or the rate of inflation — whichever is lower — from one year to the next without risking a protest petition challenge that could automatically revert spending to the previous year’s level.
GOP leaders respond to veto
Because it originally passed the House 63-59 and the Senate 22-18 — both well short of the two-thirds supermajority necessary to override Kelly’s veto — the legislation could well be dead.
“I’m very disappointed that Gov. Kelly has chosen to stand between Kansans and much needed property tax relief,” said House Majority Leader Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican, in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“This Legislature worked hard to deliver on its promise of relief, and passed a bill to give the voters the ability to stop excessive property tax hikes, yet the governor has vetoed that effort, putting partisan politics ahead of the financial burden Kansans face every year,” Croft continued.
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said Kelly’s veto “continues to show our state’s desperate need for a Republican governor.”
“Laura Kelly and the Democrats have proven they are not serious about solving the property tax crisis that is driving Kansans out of their homes,” Masterson said in a statement. “Enough is enough. When I’m governor, the runaway appraisals and out-of-control local spending will come to an end.”
A planned two-day veto session is set to begin in Topeka on Thursday before lawmakers break for the year and attention shifts to campaigning. Legislative leaders had already promised to revisit property taxes this week.
Masterson told The Star in an email statement that Kelly’s proposal would not be given serious consideration during the veto session. He said GOP leaders received no prior notice that the governor would be putting her own plan forward.
“No time and no,” Masterson said in a quote provided by his spokesperson. He characterized Kelly’s plan as “completely disingenuous.”
Infighting between House and Senate Republicans short-circuited property tax reform in 2025 and left the two chambers with an assessment limit compromise that failed in the House and didn’t get a vote in the Senate before last month’s adjournment.
“This conversation is not over and we will continue to fight to put Kansans who are suffering under out-of-control property taxes back in the driver’s seat,” said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who’s running for insurance commissioner.
Kelly’s tax plan
Kansas property taxes are driven by three major factors — the property’s appraised value, the percentage of the appraised value that’s taxed (the assessed value) and the mill levy. Counties, cities, and school districts each set their mill levy, with one mill constituting $1 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.
The proposal that Kelly put forward calls for a three-pronged approach to tax reform.
The first step would be passing legislation to establish a one-time $250 tax credit for all vehicle owners in the state when they complete their registration. Senate Bill 378 was introduced in January by Sen. Ethan Corson, a Fairway Democrat who Kelly has endorsed in this year’s gubernatorial contest.
“The cost to cover this credit would be paid for by using surplus funds sitting in the budget stabilization fund,” Kelly said in the release. “This policy would give immediate relief to Kansans in Fiscal Year 2027 while the other components of the package take shape.”
The next step would be rewarding local governments that demonstrate a commitment to managing their budgets responsibly. Kelly said that could be achieved by creating a fund that would be divided up annually between qualifying cities and counties — a similar proposal to one House lawmakers approved in the original version of the protest petition bill.
The state would make an annual deposit in the fund beginning at $60 million and increasing by 2% each year under Kelly’s proposal.
“Cities and counties that keep their annual budget growth at a reasonable level — recommended to be no greater than three percent — would be eligible to claim a portion of this fund, to assist them in paying for needed services,” Kelly said. “The distribution formula would take into account each city/county’s population and total assessed value, ensuring that rural and urban areas have equitable access to these funds.”
Finally, the governor’s plan calls for raising the residential exemption on the 20-mills that Kansas levies to support public schools. State law currently exempts the first $75,000 of every home from that levy. Kelly’s proposal calls for doubling that exemption to the first $150,000 by adopting another piece of legislation that Corson introduced this year, Senate Bill 309.
“The state is not excused from being a part of the solution and providing relief for the portion of property taxes for which it is responsible,” she said.
To preserve constitutionally required educational funding, the exemption would be offset with money from the State General Fund.
It remains to be seen what if any tax reform legislation GOP leaders will bring to a vote this week. A constitutional amendment proposal would be invulnerable from a veto, but would require the support of two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers.
This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
