Kansas Republicans go all in on defunding the police as exhausting 2026 session burns itself out

Senate President Ty Masterson wields a gavel on April 9, 2026, in his chamber. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Forget Ad Astra per Aspera as the official Kansas motto.

Bring on Exhaustum et Stultus. Or if you want to translate the Latin into English: Exhausting and Foolish.

That’s this journalist’s suggestion after watching the Kansas Legislature go out in a spasm of dysfunction early Saturday, with senators and representatives clashing over yet another doomed tax measure.

The chambers had been at odds over how to tackle rising property taxes throughout the 2026 session, with the overall task made more challenging by the fact that most property taxes are levied by cities and counties. But House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita and Senator President Ty Masterson of Andover both wanted to score a veto session win. Hawkins heads off to run for state insurance commissioner, while Masterson covets Cedar Crest.

Gov. Laura Kelly notched wins and losses, seeing her overrides of bills tweaking education assessments and protecting veteran “claim sharks” sustained, while her vetoes of measures creating first responder buffer zones and additional abortion restrictions were overridden.

What a session. What a veto session. So much exhaustion. So much foolishness.

We still have work to do. Catch Kansas Reflector’s explosive series this week about how process shortcuts have distorted lawmaking. Our reporters will also catch you up on the final flurry of activity from last week’s veto session.

Defunding the police

The two chambers squeezed out a single property tax bill — House Bill 2043 — during the veto session. It was a revision of House Bill 2745, which she had vetoed earlier that week. You might remember this proposal as the one that allows a tiny minority of local voters to hold city and county government spending hostage.

Sen. Bill Clifford, R-Garden City, memorably said that proposal enabled “tyranny of the minority,” and its revision didn’t improve matters much.

Not only did the veto session bill cap local government spending, but it led to the curious spectacle of Kansas Republicans voting en masse to defund the police. Just think about it. Local property taxes go toward local services. Those include schools, roads and — yes — police and firefighters. Towns, cities and counties would be forced to pay law enforcement officials less or reduce staffing.

I never imagined that Kansas lawmakers would devote themselves so passionately to progressive causes, but at least they finally saw the light. We do need to create a new paradigm for keeping our communities safe. Perhaps Masterson and Hawkins can pick up shifts as night watchmen!

Seriously though, can you can you imagine the attack mailers if Democrats wanted to go for the jugular?

A batch of Democrats voted for the bill in the House (a handful of Republicans voted against it in both chambers). The poor dears may have felt the need to support tax relief during an election year. Like much about this session, we’ll see how it plays out.

Regardless, SB 2043 still has to cross Kelly’s desk. Because the chambers won’t meet again for the rest 2o26, members can’t override a potential veto. The governor’s handpicked successor, State Sen. Ethan Corson, D-Fairway, lambasted the bill as “not a serious piece of legislation.” I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a veto.

Flames aplenty

If you want to see firsthand how tempers flared late last week, I direct you to a couple of social media posts from House minority leader Brandon Woodward, D-Lenexa, and House Speaker Pro Tem Blake Carpenter, R-Derby.

Here’s how Woodard characterized a last-minute attempt by Masterson to shove through a property tax constitutional amendment.

The outgoing Senate President and his Gollum tax chair lied, threatened, and played the the People of Kansas by refusing to pass meaningful relief for Kansans and played political games to reject the majority of the #ksleg who wanted to provide REAL solutions for Kansas. https://t.co/gr0JLJi87o pic.twitter.com/AAChaFUeAx

— Brandon Woodard (@Woodard4Kansas) April 12, 2026

And here’s how Carpenter characterized Kelly and her veto of the Legislature’s budget for next year.

Perhaps everyone needs a few days away from politics, huh? (Also, I can’t help but wonder if Woodward means to refer to Grima Wormtongue rather than Gollum, but I’ll leave that riddle to the Tolkien scholars.)

Off to see the wizard

State Sen. Michael Murphy, R-Sylvia, drew on Kansas favorite “The Wizard of Oz” during debate over a bill eliminating capital gains taxes on gold and silver.

You can read the story from Kansas Reflector senior reporter Tim Carpenter, but suffice it to say Murphy cited the alarmingly persistent interpretation of of L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel as a populist allegory about gold- and silver-backed currency.

“Lot of people don’t think about it, but that was written about monetary policy,” Murphy claimed.

As someone who not only devoured Baum’s books as a child but also follows current-day Oziana, I must protest that this reading of the book is total nonsense. No one had even considered the possibility until publication of a 1964 paper by Henry M. Littlefield — 46 years after Baum’s death.

The writer had no truck with populist causes of the late 19th century, according to scholar Michael Patrick Hearn: “He wrote ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to entertain children, not to lecture them about politics.”

Year four

We’ve arrived at the end of my fourth year writing the Statehouse Scraps column. For the first couple of sessions, I followed along merrily and relayed whatever bits and pieces I could. For the third year, I added more items and a doubled down on a quizzical tone.

This year, I moved the column to Mondays and tried to share the broader session story with Reflector readers. My jumbled conglomerations of verbiage were accompanied by weekly videos of editor-in-chief Sherman Smith and myself talking about each week’s events.

Statehouse Scraps will resume next session, on one day or another. The videos of Sherman and me will continue outside of session – we’ve received positive feedback for readers and look forward to subjecting everyone to our yammering for ages to come.

Looking ahead, I can predict almost nothing. This clouded outlook makes for a uniquely unsettled April. Both Hawkins and Masterson could be gone when the 2027 session begins, or Masterson might return. The entire composition of the house could radically change, or it might remain a GOP supermajority paradise.

No matter what, Kansas will have a new governor. But will he or she continue Kelly’s technocratic pragmatism or drive us into an ideological ditch? Who knows!

Whatever the case, you can rest assured: I’ll be writing about it.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.