The 2024 Kansas Legislature will convene in early January for our annual 90 day session. I wanted to provide you a quick update previewing the upcoming session and getting your feedback on the most important issues we will debate in the coming legislative session.

The best way to keep up with me in the legislature is by my Facebook page, or by emailing me at pcurtiskck@gmail.com. Email is the fastest and most reliable way to communicate with me, but if you must call, please call my legislative phone at 785-296-7430.

STATE BUDGET SURPLUS

The State of Kansas is again estimated to have a $2 billion surplus in its ending balance. Republican leadership in both the House and Senate are determined to use that surplus to cut taxes for the wealthiest individuals and companies in Kansas. House Democrats believe that the surplus should be used to reduce property taxes for every single Kansas homeowner, and we have a package of bills prepared to be introduced in the 2024 session that will do just that.

How would you use the surplus?

I am interested in knowing how you would like to see the $2 billion surplus used. Take the 2024 Legislative Survey and let me know your thoughts, so that I can best represent our district in Topeka this session. The three big issues I have heard from many of you this year are about infrastructure, Medicaid expansion, and taxes.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Multiple contemporaneous bridge closures across Wyandotte County, including the Central Avenue Bridge in our District, have highlighted to residents just how vulnerable and important our infrastructure is in KCK.

While KCK has more bridges than other communities our size, we also have a set of unique challenges that make those bridges necessary for residents to move efficiently around the county and region and also for commerce. We’re a major railroad hub for the United States sitting at the confluence of two major rivers, one of which is a stateline. All of these factors make our bridges critically important.

As a legislator, individually, I don’t have much power to replace the Central Avenue Bridge, but for most of this year I have used my bully pulpit and connections to federal, state and local officials to serve as facilitator between those entities to come up with a plan for repairing or replacing the Central Avenue Bridge.

The bridge is owned by the Unified Government, but it also crosses the rail yard, a major river and a state line. This will undoubtedly be an expensive transportation project, so we need to include all partners in this program so that Wyandotte County isn’t left holding the bag.

This planning phase will allow all potential parties and other stakeholders, including residents, an opportunity to provide input to develop a plan for the Central Avenue Bridge. I am aware that some of our neighbors in the district don’t, for fair reasons, want to see taxpayer money spent on replacing the bridge. I have heard your concerns, and I will keep those concerns in consideration moving forward. However, the vast majority of residents I have heard from in the district support a plan that repairs or replaces the bridge. I have included a question in the survey about the Central Avenue Bridge closure.

TAXES

I’ve heard from many of you about property taxes over the spring and summer, and you are rightfully upset and concerned about the dramatic increase in actual property taxes. Steve and I were both upset when we opened our tax bill. Like many of you, we’ve had to tighten our belts, too.

While it's a blessing that our homes are gaining value in KCK, the corresponding tax increase has made it incredibly difficult for some fixed income individuals and families to stay in their homes. Nobody should be taxed into homelessness.

The Kansas Legislature can immediately reduce the property taxes in Kansas by complying with a 1937 law called the Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction (LAVTR) Fund, which takes a portion of the sales tax that the state collects in our community and returns it to our local governments to reduce local property taxes.

The Kansas Legislature hasn’t complied with the law since 2003, amounting to nearly $1.5 billion in tax revenue collected but not returned to our communities. Rather than acting like the only government in Kansas, the Kansas Legislature must do a better job of being partners with local governments, because it costs more when our governments don’t work together. One step to being a good partner to our local communities is to return sales tax dollars the state has confiscated from our communities.

I support funding the LAVTR Fund in the 2024 session. The House Democrats’ proposal would require local governments use those funds for reducing property taxes.

FOOD SALES TAX

House Republicans attempted to return us to the failed Brownback tax plan in the 2022 session, and I expect they will try that again. Last year, Republicans married hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires with the immediate as opposed to phased elimination of the food sales tax. According to the Kansas Reflector,  “[a]bout 43% of the tax savings (under the Republican tax plan) would go to the 3% of Kansans who earn more than $250,000 a year.”

While the food sales tax is set to be completely eliminated in 2025, I believe it should have been eliminated immediately from the outset. House Republicans, however, opted to stagger the elimination in phases in the 2021 session so that they could continue to use a tax break intended for you and other individual working class taxpayers as leverage for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. I voted against returning to the Brownback era tax breaks.

WE MUST EXPAND MEDICAID

The Republican supermajority is still refusing to even hold a hearing on expanding Medicaid. Kansas is now one of fourteen states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, and, as a result, between 2014 and 2021 we have lost out on over $5 billion in federal healthcare funding for low income families, the working poor, and the clinics and hospitals that serve those individuals. You are picking up the tab for those other 41 other states that have already expanded Medicaid, and you’re picking up the tab for higher hospital bills that occur from treating the uninsured in our local emergency rooms.

Increasingly, those emergency room visits are mental health related and, without Medicaid expansion, those individuals have little opportunity for obtaining long term treatment and stability. Instead, individuals experiencing a mental health crisis are treated through repeated and frequent emergency room visits borne by consumers and charities and visits to the county jail. There are untold hidden costs being borne by the Unified Government and countless other local governments across Kansas due to the Republicans‘ refusal to expand Medicaid.

More than 75% of Kansas’ hospitals are facing imminent closure because, without Medicaid expansion, there’s few insured patients to pay for the services that healthcare providers are providing in their communities. The repeated failure to expand Medicaid since 2014 has cost our state and our community dearly and will continue to cost our state dearly until we can do the right thing and expand Medicaid. More than 80% of Kansans support expanding Medicaid.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

Congratulations are in order for Bill Burns, our new 2nd District Commissioner at the Unified Government. I look forward to working with Bill and the entire Unified Government to make sure our local and state governments are working together to address the challenges we face.

I also want to thank Anna Cole for running. While not victorious, I am confident that Anna will continue to be a visible and effective citizen advocate and leader in the Strawberry Hill Neighborhood and I look forward to working with her.

Finally, I want to thank Commissioner Brian McKiernan for his service these last twelve years.

Sometimes democracy is messy, but it is always worth it. We’re better off for the service of each of these individuals.