Key Votes

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 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.

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.

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.