Key Votes

This bill lets just 10% of registered voters sign a petition to freeze local government and school district budgets at prior-year levels, blocking tax revenue increases above inflation plus 3%. The petition mechanism includes no protection for wages and benefits already negotiated in collective bargaining agreements, meaning a successful petition could prevent a school district or city from funding raises it already agreed to pay teachers, public employees, and other union workers. The bill also provides government-funded petition infrastructure by embedding signature pages in tax notices mailed to every property owner.

This bill creates a government-funded petition process that allows just 10% of registered voters to block school districts, cities, and counties from raising property tax revenue above the prior year's level. There is no protection for wages and benefits already negotiated in union contracts — meaning a successful petition could prevent a public employer from funding raises it already agreed to pay. The bill also embeds petition signature pages directly into tax notices mailed to every property owner at taxpayer expense, giving anti-tax groups a built-in organizing tool that labor has no equivalent way to counter.

This bill creates a voluntary "portable benefit plan" for independent contractors but includes a critical provision that prevents benefit contributions from ever being used as evidence that a worker is actually an employee. That legal shield lets gig companies like Uber and DoorDash make token benefit contributions while permanently blocking workers from using those contributions to prove they deserve full employee protections — including wages, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, and the right to organize. The benefit framework itself has no minimum contribution requirements and no mandate for companies to participate.

SB 521 gives employers a 75% tax credit for paying child care expenses for their workers, setting up on-site child care programs, or pooling resources with other employers to expand community child care availability. Affordable child care is one of the biggest barriers working families face, and this credit changes the economics at the bargaining table by making it significantly cheaper for employers to offer child care as a workplace benefit. Labor supports this bill because employer-provided child care is a real compensation issue for union members with families, and the collaborative investment provision opens new doors for smaller employers to participate.

This massive rewrite of Kansas unemployment insurance law touched dozens of provisions governing who qualifies for benefits, how long they last, and what counts as "suitable work." While early versions contained real wins for workers — including protections against midnight budget cuts to UI and guarantees that union-negotiated supplemental unemployment pay wouldn't reduce state benefits — the final version that came out of conference committee drew unanimous opposition from Democrats, signaling that critical worker protections were gutted or that harmful restrictions on eligibility and benefits were added. Labor opposes the bill as passed because the final product failed to protect the provisions that mattered most to working families who depend on unemployment insurance during layoffs.

HB 2468 doubles the tax credit cap for private school voucher scholarships from $10 million to $20 million and opts Kansas into a new federal tax credit, steering more public dollars toward private schools. This amendment would have required private schools receiving these taxpayer-funded scholarships to meet basic accountability standards. Labor supports the amendment because expanding vouchers without oversight drains funding from public schools where union members teach and work, weakening both the schools and the educators who serve Kansas kids.

SB 363 raises the age limit for SNAP work requirements from 49 to 64, forcing older displaced workers to meet strict work hour mandates or lose food assistance. It also requires quarterly Medicaid eligibility paperwork — a burden that causes eligible working families to lose health coverage through administrative red tape — and eliminates existing exemptions for veterans, homeless individuals, and former foster youth. The bill also bars the governor from issuing emergency waivers during recessions or plant closures, removing a critical safety net for workers when they need it most.

This amendment to the five-year state budget penalizes school districts financially when staff "encourage, facilitate, or enable" student walkouts — language broad enough to punish a teacher for simply not blocking a door. Public school employees face an impossible choice between exercising professional judgment and exposing their district to funding cuts that hit salaries, staffing levels, and working conditions. The amendment attacks the principle of collective action itself: penalizing institutions for failing to suppress organized protest sets a precedent that could extend to worker actions.

This biennial state budget set spending levels for all state agencies but included zero pay raises for the roughly 40,000 Kansas state employees, despite a market salary study showing workers falling further behind. The budget also directed conference committee negotiations on a pay plan but failed to guarantee any outcome, while containing provisions that weakened job security for university workers. A NAY vote supported sending the budget back for meaningful investment in the state workforce.

This bill lets just 10% of registered voters in a community block local governments and school districts from raising property tax revenue — even when increases are needed to fund negotiated wage agreements. Protest petition forms would be mailed directly to every property owner at taxpayer expense, giving anti-tax groups a powerful new tool to squeeze the budgets that pay public employees. There is no protection for existing union contracts, meaning a successful petition could make it impossible for employers to fund already-negotiated raises for teachers, firefighters, and other public workers.

This amendment to the state budget would have directed $40.6 million to special education, drawing first from unspent federal ARPA funds already allocated to Kansas. State law requires 92% reimbursement of special education costs, but Kansas has funded only 70-75% for years — a shortfall that forces school districts to increase caseloads, cut support staff positions, and suppress wages for the thousands of teachers, paraprofessionals, and therapists who deliver these services. The amendment represented less than four-tenths of one percent of the state general fund budget.

SCR 1616 proposes amending the Kansas Constitution to cap annual increases in assessed property values at 3%, rolling the baseline back to 2022 levels. Despite being marketed as property tax relief, the cap does not limit actual tax bills — local governments retain full authority to raise mill levies to meet budget needs, simply shifting the burden onto new homeowners, new construction, and commercial property. The result is squeezed revenue for cities, counties, and school districts whose budgets fund the wages, benefits, and jobs of thousands of union-represented teachers, firefighters, road crews, and public safety workers. The cap also penalizes new construction by taxing it at full market value while capping existing properties, directly undermining housing affordability and construction trades employment — contradicting the Senate's own vote the same week to encourage new home building. The Senate adopted the resolution 30-10 on Emergency Final Action.

This bill requires the Department of Insurance to produce cost reports on health coverage bills — but the reports only count premium increases, not the savings workers get from better coverage. Even worse, the underlying data submitted by insurance companies is kept secret from the public, making the reports impossible to verify or challenge. The result is a tool that can be used session after session to kill coverage mandates that protect working families' health benefits.

This bill creates a voluntary "portable benefits" framework for independent contractors working for gig companies like Uber and DoorDash, but its real impact is a legal shield buried in the fine print: companies that make even token contributions to a worker's benefit account can't have those contributions used as evidence that the worker is actually an employee. That matters because when workers are misclassified as independent contractors, they lose access to minimum wage protections, overtime, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, and the right to organize. By severing this key legal link, the bill makes it harder for misclassified workers to prove they deserve full employee rights and benefits.

SB 375 imposes new legal burdens on proxy advisory firms — the companies that union pension funds and retirement plans hire to research and recommend how to vote their shares on corporate issues like executive pay, workplace safety, and governance. By requiring a narrow type of "written financial analysis" for any recommendation that goes against company management, the bill makes it harder and more expensive for these advisors to recommend votes on labor, environmental, and governance proposals that workers' retirement funds depend on. This is part of a national campaign to weaken the tools unions use to hold corporations accountable as shareholders.

SB 413 prohibits attorneys from suggesting a specific dollar amount for pain and suffering damages in civil cases — but only for the injured party's lawyer. Defense attorneys face no such restriction. This one-sided rule hurts workers who sue over workplace injuries, discrimination, or harassment by making it harder for juries to put a fair dollar figure on their suffering, while employers can freely argue damages should be minimal.

SB 462 shields corporations from public nuisance lawsuits by prohibiting claims based on the design, manufacturing, or marketing of legal products — the same legal theory communities used to hold opioid manufacturers accountable. The bill also bars private class actions for public nuisances, hands sole authority over multi-county cases to the Attorney General, and retroactively applies to cases already pending in court. For workers and their families harmed by corporate pollution, chemical exposure like PFAS, or future public health crises, this bill shuts the courthouse door.

This bill requires Kansas agencies to hand over SNAP and Medicaid recipient data to federal agencies "without conditions or limitations" within 30 days of any request — stripping the state's ability to negotiate privacy protections or data security safeguards. Hundreds of thousands of working Kansans in low-wage jobs rely on these programs, including workers in meatpacking, food service, healthcare, and construction. Removing all state-level privacy protections creates a chilling effect that discourages eligible working families from accessing the benefits they've earned.

This bill doubles the tax credit cap for donations to private school scholarship programs from $10 million to $20 million and opts Kansas into a new federal tax credit that lets wealthy individual donors stack additional subsidies on top. By diverting more public dollars to private schools that lack union protections and collective bargaining, this bill threatens funding, jobs, and bargaining power for public school employees — including teachers and support staff who are union members.

Rep. Boatman's amendment would have kept the Kansas private school scholarship tax credit cap at $10 million and removed the automatic escalator that allows the cap to grow to $30 million without further legislative action. Kansas public schools employ tens of thousands of union-represented teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, and support staff whose wages and working conditions depend on adequate state funding — and the state already faces a $228 million special education funding shortfall. Every dollar diverted through expanded tax credits is revenue the State General Fund does not collect, increasing pressure on the public school budgets that fund union jobs. The amendment was rejected 35-82, clearing the way for the bill to double the cap and add the automatic escalator on final passage the following day.

SB 387 requires school districts to annually verify household income for every at-risk student — an unfunded mandate the Kansas Department of Education warned violates federal regulations and risks $250 million in annual federal school nutrition funding. The bill also blocks schools from participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision for free meals without first obtaining legislative permission, inserting a political veto into a federal anti-poverty program. Working families with irregular hours or modest wages face the highest documentation barriers, and children who lose at-risk status don't become less poor — their schools just lose the supplemental funding that supports paraprofessional positions, counselors, and support staff. Thirty-nine organizations testified against the bill and only three in favor; even eight Republican senators voted no, citing the burden on resource-stressed rural districts. The Senate passed the bill 22-18 on Emergency Final Action.

SB 254 bars undocumented immigrants from state and local public benefits, voids Kansas's in-state tuition law, and creates a presumption that noncitizens charged with any crime are a flight risk who can be held without bond. The bill chills workplace safety complaints and wage theft reporting by immigrant workers in meatpacking and construction — making job sites less safe for all workers — while imposing unfunded verification duties on state and county employees who administer benefits programs. A NAY vote protects workers' ability to report unsafe conditions and prevents an unfunded mandate on public employees.

SB 254 bars undocumented immigrants from receiving state and local public benefits, voids Kansas's existing in-state tuition law, and creates a legal presumption that noncitizens charged with any crime are a flight risk — making pretrial detention more likely. For workers in meatpacking, construction, and other industries, the flight-risk provision discourages reporting unsafe working conditions, filing workers' comp claims, and speaking up about wage theft — putting all workers on those job sites at greater risk. The bill also imposes new federal verification duties on state and county employees who administer public benefits, adding workload with no additional resources.

This bill removes longstanding legal protections for 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts from child support claims, and allows courts to order full liquidation of those accounts — with workers paying early withdrawal penalties and taxes on top. The bill's vague "voluntary underemployment" trigger, which activates the retirement seizure power, is never defined and could potentially reach workers who go on strike, take FMLA leave, or accept a union-negotiated buyout. Workers who spent years building retirement security through collectively bargained benefits could see those accounts drained, losing far more in penalties and taxes than the support obligation satisfied.

HB 2062 removes longstanding legal protections that shielded workers' 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement accounts from being seized to pay child support arrearages. The bill allows courts to order the total liquidation of a worker's retirement savings — with the worker absorbing early withdrawal penalties and taxes — when a judge determines the worker is "voluntarily underemployed," a term the bill never defines. That vague trigger could potentially reach workers who go on strike, take FMLA leave, or accept a union-negotiated buyout, putting hard-won retirement security at risk.

This bill gives the Attorney General's inspector general sweeping new powers — including subpoenas, search warrants, and criminal jurisdiction — to investigate families who receive food assistance (SNAP), cash assistance (TANF), and Medicaid. Many union members in lower-wage jobs rely on these programs to make ends meet, and healthcare and social service workers at Medicaid-participating facilities could be compelled to turn over records or testify against their own employers. Labor opposes this bill because it builds a coercive enforcement apparatus targeting working families who depend on the safety net, while doing little to hold large contractors accountable.

This bill gives the Inspector General sweeping new powers — including subpoenas, search warrants, and criminal jurisdiction — to investigate families who receive food assistance (SNAP), cash assistance (TANF), and Medicaid. Many working families rely on these programs to make ends meet when wages fall short, and this law creates a hostile, punitive environment around accessing benefits they've earned. It also allows the IG to compel healthcare and social service workers to turn over records and testify in fraud investigations of their own employers. The Governor vetoed this bill, and this vote was to override that veto.

This bill requires legislative approval before any state agency can seek federal waivers to expand Medicaid eligibility or make changes to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It creates a major barrier to federal funding that could raise wages for Kansas's roughly 10,000 direct support professionals — chronically underpaid workers who provide daily care to some of our most vulnerable neighbors. By adding political hurdles to routine federal waiver requests, this law makes it harder for the state to bring home federal dollars that support healthcare jobs and working families' access to care.

This bill requires legislative approval before any state agency can seek federal waivers to expand public assistance programs like Medicaid or make changes to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It creates a new bureaucratic barrier that can block federal funding for healthcare coverage and delay rate increases for the roughly 10,000 direct support professionals who care for Kansans with disabilities — workers already among the lowest-paid in the state. By adding a legislative veto over routine program improvements, this law makes it harder to expand healthcare access for uninsured working families and harder to raise wages for direct care workers.

HB 2291 creates a "regulatory sandbox" program that allows businesses to apply to have state rules and regulations suspended — including potentially workplace safety and wage protections enforced by the Kansas Department of Labor. The program is overseen by a business-dominated advisory committee with no labor representation, applications are kept secret from the public, and if an agency fails to respond within 30 days, rules are automatically waived. Labor opposed this bill because it undermines the regulations that protect working people on the job, with no transparency or worker voice in the process.

This bill creates a new program in the Attorney General's office that allows businesses to apply to have state regulations waived or suspended for up to three years. Workplace safety rules, wage protections, and other labor regulations are not excluded from the program, and there is no seat for workers or unions on the advisory committee that reviews applications. If an understaffed agency like the Kansas Department of Labor fails to respond to an application within 30 days, the rules are automatically treated as waived — a built-in trap that puts working people at risk.

This vote forced a single up-or-down decision on overriding all of the Governor's line-item vetoes on the state budget at once — denying senators the chance to deliberate on each provision individually. The overridden vetoes included eliminating 12-month continuous Medicaid eligibility for low-wage workers, mandating an AI-driven budget audit program with no collective bargaining protections for affected state employees, requiring elimination of all DEI positions across state government, and imposing across-the-board agency budget cuts that directly pressure state employee wages and staffing.

SB 14 creates a "continuous budget" that keeps last year's spending levels in place if the legislature doesn't pass a new budget, eliminating the governor's ability to use a budget impasse to push for better pay, benefits, and funding for workers' programs. Even more concerning, it gives the Secretary of Administration power to automatically cut state funding for Medicaid, workforce programs, and social services whenever federal dollars are reduced — bypassing the legislature where working families have a voice. Labor opposed the veto override because this bill shifts budget power away from the democratic process and puts public sector jobs and critical services at risk of cuts by unelected administrators.

SB 14 establishes a continuous state budget, meaning if the legislature doesn't pass a new budget, last year's spending levels automatically roll forward — eliminating the governor's ability to use a budget impasse to push for state worker pay raises, KPERS pension contributions, and funding for worker-serving programs. The bill also gives the Secretary of Administration power to automatically cut state funding for Medicaid, workforce development, and social services whenever federal dollars are reduced, bypassing the legislative process where working families have a voice. Labor opposes this bill because it locks in the status quo of underfunded state services and removes a critical tool for negotiating better outcomes for Kansas workers.

SB 269 locks Kansas into an automatic system that ratchets down income tax rates whenever revenues exceed a formula-based threshold. While the bill includes some fiscal guardrails, every triggered rate cut permanently reduces the revenue available to fund public schools, state agencies, and KPERS retirement contributions that working families depend on. The bill also immediately raised effective tax rates on lower-income Kansans by collapsing three tax brackets into two, hitting workers earning under $30,000 the hardest.

SB 269 creates an automatic trigger that ratchets down Kansas income tax rates whenever state revenues exceed a baseline, putting the state on a path toward a flat tax. While framed as fiscally responsible, once rates drop they never go back up — meaning less money available over time for public schools, state agencies, KPERS retirement contributions, and the services working families depend on. Kansas lived through this story before during the Brownback-era tax experiment, which led to budget crises, funding cuts, and public-sector wage freezes.

Nine senators voted to force SB 218 — a minimum wage increase — out of committee for a floor vote. Kansas has been stuck at the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour since 2009, one of the lowest in the nation. Thirty senators voted to keep the bill buried in committee, blocking any debate on raising wages for the lowest-paid workers in the state.

This bill expands the Kansas Promise Scholarship — which helps working families afford career and technical education — to include a new category of institutions that drops the nonprofit requirement. While the funding increase is welcome, this change could divert millions in public workforce training dollars to for-profit career schools with track records of poor job placement and predatory recruitment targeting the same working-class families the program is designed to help. Labor opposes this bill because public investment in workforce development should flow to institutions with proven outcomes for workers, not to those whose business model depends on exploiting them.

SB 269 creates an automatic trigger that ratchets down Kansas income tax rates whenever revenue exceeds a certain threshold — with no mechanism to restore rates if budgets fall short. While framed as fiscally responsible, every automatic tax cut means less money available for public schools, state agencies, KPERS retirement contributions, and the services working families depend on. Kansas lived through this story before during the Brownback era, when structural revenue losses led to public sector wage freezes, layoffs, and underfunded schools.

Nine senators voted to force SCR 1609 — a proposed constitutional amendment to repeal Kansas\'s right-to-work provision — out of committee and onto the floor. Kansas is one of the few states where right-to-work is enshrined in the constitution itself, requiring a two-thirds supermajority plus a statewide vote to change. Thirty senators voted to prevent the people of Kansas from even having the chance to vote on this question.

This massive rewrite of Kansas unemployment insurance law touched dozens of provisions governing who qualifies for benefits, how long they last, and what counts as "suitable work." While early versions contained real wins for workers — including protections against midnight budget cuts to UI and guarantees that union-negotiated supplemental unemployment pay wouldn't reduce state benefits — the final version that came out of conference committee gutted critical worker protections and added harmful restrictions on eligibility and benefits. Labor opposes the bill as passed because the final product failed to protect the provisions that mattered most to working families who depend on unemployment insurance during layoffs.

This bill makes the previous year's state budget automatically continue if the legislature doesn't pass a new one, eliminating the governor's ability to use budget deadlines to push for state employee pay raises and full KPERS pension contributions. It also gives an unelected appointee — the Secretary of Administration — the power to automatically cut state funding for Medicaid, workforce programs, and social services whenever federal dollars are reduced, bypassing the legislature where working families have a voice. Labor opposes this bill because it shifts budget power away from the tools that have historically protected state workers and the programs Kansas families depend on.

This bill bars state agencies from requiring college degrees for most government jobs and promotions, replacing them with experience-based criteria. While skills-based hiring sounds good on paper, state employee unions raised serious concerns that removing degree requirements without safeguards could lead to wage compression, downgrading of job classifications, and lower pay for experienced workers. The bill also lacks any enforcement mechanism, leaving state workers with no way to hold agencies accountable if they misapply the law.

HB 2086 improves the retirement dividend formula for every Kansas public employee hired since 2015 — including teachers, state workers, and local government employees. It lowers the investment return threshold from 6% to 5% and increases workers' share of excess returns from 75% to 80%, effectively more than doubling the annual dividend credit in typical years. This is a straightforward improvement to the deferred wages our members earn, and it passed the House 116-5 with broad bipartisan support.

This bill transfers the state employee health benefits program to the Insurance Department — a reasonable reorganization on its face. But buried in the fine print, it deletes injured workers' right to have their attorney notified when workers' comp payments are made electronically, repeals ten statutes governing employer contributions for state employees' children's health coverage, and hands permanent control of the state employee health care commission to the elected Commissioner of Insurance rather than a governor's appointee accountable to state workers. These hidden rollbacks were never debated as standalone bills and directly harm the roughly 40,000 state employees and their families who depend on these programs.

SB 161 requires a full act of the legislature before any state agency can adjust Medicaid reimbursement rates for disability services or expand public assistance programs. For Kansas's roughly 30,000 direct support professionals — care workers already earning poverty-level wages of $13-15/hour — this hands a historically hostile legislature veto power over the only realistic path to pay increases. Labor opposes this bill because it freezes the administrative flexibility that agencies need to raise care worker wages and capture available federal matching dollars.

SB 14 would put the state budget on autopilot, automatically continuing last year's spending levels if the Legislature doesn't act. This eliminates the annual pressure on lawmakers to negotiate and fund public services, making it easier to freeze wages, staffing, and programs that working families depend on. By removing the urgency to pass a budget, it weakens the leverage public employee unions have during the appropriations process and hands sweeping reallocation power to unelected administrators.