Kansas Legislative Roundup

Kansas' legislative session was dominated by cutting taxes on business and a few new investments in education around the state.

For businesses, the session was a profitable one:

• The franchise fee paid by businesses to operate in the state was eliminated, a $135 million loss in revenue for the state over the next five years.
• Unemployment taxes paid by businesses were cut by $176 million over two years.

Low-income workers did benefit from a $46 million expansion of the state Earned Income Tax Credit over the next five years.

Some money was put into increased investments around the state, including $122.7 million for schools as part of a multi-year school finance plan. 

On health care, while the state passed a few small reforms to help small businesses pool employees to get health insurance discounts and a few increased subsidies for poor families, most discussion on health care was punted to 2008, with the Kansas Health Policy Authority directed to develop a plan for providing all Kansans with health insurance.  A more specific proposal to insure every Kansas child up to the age of 5 failed.

Thankfully, the Governor vetoed an invasive law that would have forced abortion providers to report information to the state about any woman having a late-term abortion, a threat to privacy that the governor thought unacceptable.