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Senate Cellphone Ban Heads to House Floor, Setting Up Fight Over Mandate Vs. Recommendation

School Voucher Tax Credit Expansion Clears Kansas House in Partisan 70-49 Vote

Sedgwick County GOP Unanimously Opposes Wichita's Proposed 1% Sales Tax as March Vote Nears

Kansas House Advances 'Right to Repair' Bill With Major Amendments

Local Government Leaders Question Enforcement Costs of Kansas Bathroom Bill Awaiting Kelly's Expected Veto

Senate Cellphone Ban Stalls as House Committee Strips Mandate, Setting Up Conference Fight

TOPEKA — The Kansas Senate passed SB 281 with a bipartisan supermajority of 28 votes, co-led by Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi, R-Andale, and Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, to ban cellphones, smartwatches and earbuds in all public and accredited nonpublic schools from bell to bell starting in the 2026-27 school year — but the House Education Committee gutted the bill last Friday, with Rep. Sherri Brantley, R-Hoisington, successfully changing the key verb from "shall" to "may" and stripping the Senate's screen-time reporting requirement, converting the mandate into a recommendation and adding a new provision barring school employees from contacting students via social media. The substitute now heads to the full House for debate, and if passed, returns to a Senate that backed enforcement by a veto-proof margin, making a conference committee clash over the bill's central question — mandate or recommendation — all but certain, with ban advocates noting that a similar nonbinding recommendation from the State Board of Education in 2024 produced little effect.

House Passes School Voucher Tax Credit Expansion on Party-Line Vote, Drawing Democratic Opposition Over Special Education Funding

TOPEKA — The Kansas House passed HB 2468 on a partisan 70-49 vote Thursday, expanding the aggregate tax credit limit for contributions to scholarship granting organizations that help fund private school tuition, with Republicans championing the bill as a school choice measure and Democrats — including Reps. Linda Featherston, Mari-Lynn Poskin, Lynn Melton and Melissa Oropeza — uniformly opposing it, arguing the state should not divert public money from schools serving 90 percent of Kansas children until special education is fully funded and calling the credits a benefit for "white collar workers and millionaires" rather than everyday Kansans.

Sedgwick County GOP Unanimously Opposes Wichita's Proposed 1% Sales Tax, Citing Lack of Public Input Ahead of March 3 Vote

WICHITA — The Sedgwick County Republican Party voted unanimously to oppose the proposed 1% city sales tax heading to Wichita voters on March 3, passing an amended resolution that cites a lack of public input opportunities, insufficient vetting and no chance for public amendments — aligning with the official vote-no campaign, which has called the proposal too big, too vague and too rushed. Wichita Forward, the group backing the measure, projects the tax would generate roughly $850 million over seven years, or about $120 million annually based on average spending by Wichitans, but Republican Chairman John Whitmer said that while the plan may contain good ideas, more taxation is not the solution.

KWCH

House Committee Narrows Kansas 'Right to Repair' Bill, Exempting Farm Equipment and Delaying Effective Date to 2027

TOPEKA — The House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee recommended passage Thursday of HB 2700, the Kansas digital fair repair act, after adopting sweeping amendments that limit the requirement for manufacturers to provide diagnostic tools, parts and repair documentation to authorized repair providers rather than directly to consumers, carve out a broad exemption for "nonroad equipment" — a category covering farm tractors, construction equipment, forestry machinery, mining equipment and 18 other categories that effectively removes agricultural machinery from the bill's reach — and push the effective date from 2026 to 2027, a result that represents a win for manufacturers such as John Deere and suggests Republican sponsors sought to balance consumer access with industry concerns in an agriculture-heavy state.

Local Leaders Warn Kansas Bathroom Bill Could Cost Taxpayers Millions as Kelly's Veto Decision Looms

TOPEKA — Local government leaders are raising concerns about how to enforce Senate Bill 244, a measure requiring people in government buildings to use facilities matching their biological sex at birth, with Jay Hall, deputy director and general counsel for the Kansas Association of Counties, saying the bill's requirement that local bodies take "every reasonable step" to ensure compliance leaves key enforcement questions unanswered and Topeka Mayor Spencer Duncan reporting that some city leaders estimate initial costs — including signage changes — could run into millions of dollars. Gov. Laura Kelly is expected to veto the bill, which passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities and was criticized by Duncan for a legislative process that eliminated opportunities for public input; the bill originally addressed gender markers on driver's licenses and birth certificates before being expanded to include the bathroom provision.

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