Thank you for reading the second edition of the Kansans First Report, a periodic legislative update from my office regarding the work of the Republicans in the Kansas Senate.

I chose Kansans First because it reflects our fundamental belief that we should trust the people of Kansas and that the policies we enact should reflect that belief.

You can read the first edition, which details our Better Way Plan, by clicking here.

This edition will describe our work in the Kansas Senate leading up to Turnaround, which is the midpoint of the legislative session. Last week, we passed a number of items that were aspects of the Better Way plan, and I highlight those below.

If I can ever be of any assistance, I encourage you to contact my office at ty.masterson@senate.ks.gov or e-mail me at presidenttymasterson@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

“Let’s Start with the Facts” will be a weekly feature of the Kansans First Report, highlighting key items of information impacting Kansas.

Johnson County Spends Taxpayer Money on Pronoun Lapel Pins. The mainstream media frequently asks for a definition of woke. One clear example right here in Kansas is the decision by Johnson County to spend taxpayer money on pronoun lapel pins. (Source)

Bidenflation Is Still Here. U.S. stocks tumbled Friday after the Federal Reserve's most closely watched inflation measure came in stronger than expected, in another sign that price pressures have become sticky into 2023. (Source)

Bidenflation Isn’t Going Away.  A former Obama administration economist is warning that the economy is "overheated" and that there has been ‘little if any progress" made on tackling inflation during the Biden administration. (Source)

Republicans believe tax dollars are taxpayer dollars – that is, they belong to the people, not the government. In these times of record inflation, high rent and mortgage costs, and other economic uncertainty, Republicans are committed to lowering rates for everyone - with an eye towards important structural reform that puts Kansas on a path to economic prosperity, as demonstrated by other states.

This week, Republicans passed three bills that represent the first steps in the legislative process to do just that. Here are the major highlights from each bill:

SB 33 - Republicans Eliminate Taxes on Retirement and Social Security

Republicans believe that one should not have to worry about the tax burden when they are planning to retire. SB 33 furthers that goal by:

• Expanding the Kansas individual income tax exemption for Social Security benefits to include all federally taxable Social Security benefits beginning in tax year 2023.
• The bill would exempt all federally taxable income received under all retirement plans beginning in tax year 2024.

Standard Deduction COLA

SB 33 also helps Kansans who use the standard deduction by increasing the Kansas individual income tax standard deduction amounts annually by the cost of living adjustment (COLA) provided for by Section 1(f)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

SB 169 - Republicans Adopt Single Rate of 4.75%, Lowering Income Taxes for all Kansans

Kansans want taxes that are simple, fair, and low, and help our state grow. Studies such as Rich States, Poor States consistently demonstrate that states with a single rate perform better economically than states with a tiered system. SB 169 provides an income tax rate of 4.75% for all taxpayers - and because the rate would start on income in excess of $10,450 for married couples and $5,225 for all other individuals (effectively taxing such income at 0%), all taxpayers in Kansas would get a tax cut – even those who previously were taxed at 3.1%. To recap:

Under current law, there are three brackets: 

• $0 to $15,000 ($30,000 for married) – 3.1%
• $15,001 to $30,000 ($30,001-$60,000 for married) – 5.25%
• $30,000+ ($60,000+ for married) – 5.7%

Under SB 169, there is one single bracket of 4.75%. However, the first $5225 (for individuals) or $10,450 (for married couples) of income is completely tax free, creating an effective tax rate of 0% for that income. By doing this, even those taxpayers that are paying 3.1% would get a tax reduction.

SB 169 passed 22-17. 

SB 248 - Republicans Take Sales Tax on Food to True Zero

For the last year, there has been much media attention given to efforts to “axe the food tax”, leading Kansans to believe that the sales tax on food would eventually go to 0%. Only that is not the case, because only the state portion of the sales tax on food is being phased out. At the local level, sales taxes on food would still exist – often in excess of 3 or 3.5% - definitely not zero for a family with a large grocery bill.

Republicans addressed this by passing SB 248, which provides a sales tax exemption for all food and food ingredients. By creating the exemption, it is simply not able to be taxed at all, taking the rate to true zero by January of 2024. 

During the debate, Democrats offered an amendment which would have gone back to only removing the state sales tax on food, effectively increasing taxes on food – despite all the campaign promises.

Thankfully, that amendment was defeated and SB 248 passed 22-16. 

Republicans are committed to stopping the woke agenda, particularly when it has profound life-and-body altering consequences on vulnerable children. In recent years, there has been increasing alarm at children who too often feel pressure to submit to gender reassignment surgeries that they later regret. Example after heartbreaking example is compelling lawmakers across the country to take decisive action to protect these children.

Note this article regarding Chloe Cole, who came to the Kansas Senate (along with others who have de-transitioned) recently to courageously testify in support of SB 233 and told her story. Cole is engaged in a lawsuit against Kaiser Hospitals, claiming that the organization’s administration pressured her into accepting a “mutilating, mimicry sex change experiment” that she later came to regret.

The need to protect children like Chloe is why the bill is so vital to pass. It bans gender reassignment surgeries for minors by requiring the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts to revoke the license of a physician who performed a childhood gender reassignment service. It also creates a civil cause of action against a physician who performs childhood gender reassignment service.

While some Democrats tried to undermine Chloe and others like her by asking questions irrelevant to her story, Republicans stood strong and passed SB 233 by a vote of 26-11.

Republicans are committed to focusing on students, not systems. This means we must expand opportunities for all Kansas children to access great education and enhance the ability to attract great teachers to Kansas. This week, the Senate adopted two bills to do just that:

The students most at risk are those who are in failing school districts whose parents don’t have the personal resources for a different option. SB 83 addresses this providing additional student eligibility under the tax credit for low income student’s scholarship program. 

The bill would eliminate the existing requirement that a student must be eligible for the free or reduced lunch program. It would also make eligible a student who:

• Has an annual family income at or below 250 percent of federal poverty guidelines;
• Was enrolled in grades kindergarten through 12 or will be enrolled for the first time;
• Has been adopted, in foster care, or kinship care at any time prior to graduation from high school or the age of 21 years old;
• Has a parent who is on active duty with any branch of military or who was killed in the line of duty; or
• Has a parent who is in law enforcement or is an emergency medical service provider or firefighter.

The bill would add a time limit for the State Board of Education to provide a written notification of a student’s eligibility to no later than 30 days after receipt of a request from a scholarship granting organization and would increase the tax credit for the amount contributed to the scholarship granting organization from 70 percent to 75 percent, after December 31, 2022, and limits a taxpayer to a total of $100,000 in scholarship credits in any single tax year. SB 83 passed 22-16. 

“What is a woman?” is a question that Kansans never thought would have to be legislated, but the progressive left has created the necessity to do so due to their efforts to destroy basic notions of biology in favor of a woke narrative.

This week, Republicans addressed this issue head on by passing the Women’s Bill of Rights. SB 180 establishes a meaning of biological sex for purposes of statutory construction and would set intermediate constitutional scrutiny as the standard of judicial review to be applied with regard to laws and rules and regulations that distinguish between the sexes and would identify those areas where distinction between the sexes would be related to important governmental objectives. The bill also would require certain entities that collect vital statistics for the purposes outlined in the bill to identify each individual who is part of the collected data set as either male or female at birth. Finally, with respect to biological sex, the bill states that separate accommodations for men and women are not inherently unequal.

Remarkably, the Women’s Bill of Rights is bringing together groups that often disagree on other issues. In the Senate Committee meeting, representatives of Independent Women’s Law Center, Independent Women’s Voice, and Women’s Liberation Front, along with Kansas Family Voice and the Kansas Catholic Conference, provided proponent testimony, generally stating a long-standing legal precedent requires equal treatment of similarly situated men and women but allows differentiation between the sexes when privacy, safety, or equal opportunity are at stake. As the testimony noted, this long-understood fundamental premise is being threatened by those who want to redefine common sex-based words in a manner that separates sex from biology and by those who think separate is inherently unequal when it comes to sex.

It’s important to note that the bill would not change existing laws but establishes a legal definition of sex-based terms for clarity in the implementation of said laws. SB 180 passed 26-10.

This week, Republicans passed two bills that enhance the security and quality of our elections.

SB 208 would prohibit the use of remote ballot boxes for the return of advance voting

ballots. SB 208 passed 21-19.

SB 221 requires affidavits of write-in candidacy for certain locally elected offices and providing requirements for counting write-in votes on ballots. This bill was created to save election officials countless hours in having to count silly write-in names like “Mickey Mouse” for certain offices where the votes would have no impact on the result. SB 221 passed 29-7.

During 2020, 2021, and large parts of 2022, Americans in most parts of the country experienced the disastrous experience of bureaucrats issuing one-size-fits-all mandates upon the people without any check or balance. Americans have come to recognize that in a free society where the people rule, unelected bureaucrats – even health officials – should only have the power to make recommendations and that the best policy is to let people make their own decisions.

SB 6 addresses this by restricting the authority of the secretary of health and environment and local health officers to issue orders and quarantines, such as the ability to restrict public gatherings in violation of the First Amendment’s right to assemble. 

SB 6 passed 22-18.

Republicans are fully committed to building a culture of life in Kansas, which means doing everything in our power to encourage life and protect the integrity of our life-saving laws currently on the books, all supported by the vast majority of Kansans. To that end, this week Republicans passed the following bills:

SB 219 would amend the Health Care Provider Insurance Availability Act to add facilities where elective abortions are performed to the list of entities that are not healthcare providers as defined in the bill, which would make such facilities ineligible to purchase professional liability insurance from the Health Care Stabilization Fund. SB 219 would make this law consistent with other laws in Kansas which prohibit taxpayer resources being used to support abortion. SB 219 passed 26-12.

SB 5 prohibits the prescribing of drugs intended to cause an abortion using telemedicine and restricting the governor's power during a state of emergency to alter such prohibitions. SB 5 passed 27-12.

SB 96 recognizes the importance of Pregnancy Resource Centers in building a culture of life in Kansas by providing a tax credit for contributions to such nonprofit pregnancy centers or residential maternity centers, provided that such centers:

• Maintain a dedicated phone number for clients;
• Maintain a primary physical office, clinic, or residential home in Kansas for a minimum of 20 hours a week, excluding state holidays;
• Offer services free of charge to clients for the express purpose of providing assistance to women in carrying pregnancies to term, preventing abortion, and promoting healthy childbirths, and
• Utilize trained and licensed medical professionals in the performance of any available medical procedures.

The credit could be claimed against income, privilege, or premium tax liability beginning tax year 2023, in an amount equal to 70.0 percent of voluntary contributions made to such centers, and could be carried forward for up to five future tax years following the tax year in which the eligible contribution was made. Contributions would be prohibited from being payment for services rendered.

The aggregate amount of credits claimed would be limited to $10.0 million per tax year, with no more than $5.0 million per tax year in credits claimed for contributions to any single organization. SB 96 passed 28-11. 

Republicans believe that it is essential that children under the care of the state are free from the concerns of politics. To address this concern, Sub SB 232 establishes the office of the child advocate as an independent state agency. 

The Child Advocate would be established as the independent head of the Office of Child Advocate, and the bill would specify nothing in the Act would be construed to permit any governmental agency to exercise control or supervision over the Child Advocate or the OCA. The Child Advocate would be appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. This bill is the product of years of negotiation between the governor, the legislature, and other interested stakeholders.  

Sub SB 232 passed 39-0.

“News You Can Use” will be a weekly feature of the Kansans First Report, featuring news articles and other information from around the country that are relevant to the principles and priorities Republicans are promoting in Kansas.

28 groups urge Biden admin to support women's sports, fight 'unlawful' Title IX reg. More than two dozen organizations are urging the Biden administration to "abandon plans" to allow biological males to compete in women's sports and use the same locker rooms. (Source)

First infant anonymously dropped off at Kentucky 'baby box' surrender location. The first infant in Kentucky was anonymously left at one of the state's "baby box" safe surrender locations after a new state law allowed newborns to be dropped off anonymously. (Source) 

The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses — including Covid-19 — was published late last month. Its conclusions, said Tom Jefferson, the Oxford epidemiologist who is its lead author, were unambiguous. (Source)

Tennessee: Bills to criminalize drag shows for minors, ban children’s transgender therapy take near-final steps toward becoming law. (Source)

Woke Policies Failing

Mainstream media outlets like to press Republicans on the definition of woke, when there are ready examples from across the country regarding the harm such policies are having:

Go Woke, Go Broke: California Gov. Newsom's latest war on oil is off to a rough start. A Newsom-backed proposal to punish oil companies for high profits 'will only make matters worse for the California consumer,' expert tells state committee. (Source)

More Woke Craziness: L.A. DA Gascon Suspends Prosecutor for Misgendering, ‘Deadnaming’ Child Molester. Los Angeles district attorney George Gascon has suspended a prosecutor for allegedly referring to a convicted child molester and suspected murderer by his birth name and the pronouns that correspond to his sex, rather than the name and pronouns he adopted after coming out as transgender. (Source)

Woke Culture Hurts Kids: National Review. This story by Nate Hochman in the National Review discusses a new report showing how students’ minds are being shaped by taxpayer-funded activism.

SB 3 designates Silvisaurus condrayi, a one-ton armored ankylosaur that walked across Kansas during the late Cretaceous period, as the official state land fossil.

In the Senate Committee hearing, proponent testimony was provided by Challenger Intermediate School students, a Challenger Intermediate School teacher and an administrator, and a representative of the KU Natural History Museum. The proponents described how the fossil was discovered and described the appearance and characteristics of Silvisaurus condrayi. 

Below: Kids from Challenger Intermediate School watch the Senate debate SB3!

SB 3 passed 40-0.