I attended the Governor's annual State of the State Address the first week of Session. The Governor highlighted her legislative priorities for the year while focusing on rural Kansas. Her priorities include: Medicaid Expansion, Education, Early Childhood Programs, Water and Taxes. Her priorities can also be found in her budget, which was unveiled later in the week. Here is a link to the Budget Director's presentation that provides the highlights.

House Speaker Dan Hawkins provided the Republican Response.

As I mentioned earlier, the House and Senate found consensus on a tax proposal. With the state's ending balances continuing to grow, this is a key priority for everyone, including the Governor, who called on the Legislature to put a tax bill on her desk by Kansas Day.

The House and Senate both passed HB 2284, a tax package that includes:

• An exemption of all Social Security income from state taxes beginning in tax year 2024.
• An exemption for the first $100,000 of taxable residential property value from the state's 20-mill property tax levy for schools beginning in tax year 2024.
• An increase in the standard deduction based on inflation beginning in tax year 2024.
• A $50 increase in the state's personal tax exemption starting in tax year 2024 and making it subject to inflation increases in tax year 2025.
• An acceleration of the elimination of sales tax on food to April 1, 2024 rather than January 1, 2025.
• A reduction in the privilege tax for banks, which corresponds to a prior reduction in corporate taxes, which banks do not pay.
• A shift to a single income tax rate of 5.25 percent beginning in tax year 2025.

I supported this proposal because it effectively reduces taxes for Kansans while ensuring the budget is not turned upside down. After reviewing my legislative survey, I found support across our district for each of these proposals. While the bill passed the Legislature, the Governor is expected to veto it, which sets up a motion to override. It is not expected the Legislature will have the votes to override the veto, which means we are headed back to the drawing board for another tax plan. I would expect any tax plan passed this session to contain many of the same provisions as those listed above.

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Marla Luckert gave the courts annual State of the Judiciary Address to a joint session of the House and Senate. Her focus was primarily the cyber attack that has crippled the court records system in the months since. Russian hackers were responsible for the attack and she reported the court did not pay the ransomeware demands and while much of the system is back up and running the remainder should be in the next few weeks.

I have heard loud and clear from the people in our district through calls, emails and conversations as well as the survey I sent out last fall. Last week, I sent a letter to House Speaker Dan Hawkins in support of Medicaid Expansion. Leadership has prevented debate and a vote on this issue for far too long.

Earlier this week, it was Kansas Hospital Association Day at the Capitol. I was pleased to meet with Stacie Mason, Senior VP and Financial Officer & Treasurer and Emersen Frazier, Director Health Equity & Policy, both with Stormont Vail.