A new three-pronged property tax plan is emerging among key Republican senators who have discussed the possibility of a special session to address an issue that has largely eluded resolution in the Legislature for the last two sessions.
A group of senators – Larry Alley of Winfield, Rick Billinger of Goodland and Caryn Tyson of Parker – are pitching a proposal that calls for eliminating the state’s 20-mill property tax levy for schools and replacing it with a statewide three-quarter cent sales tax.
All three are committee chairs. Alley chairs the commerce committee. Tyson chairs the tax committee. Billinger chairs the Senate’s budget-writing committee.
Their proposal said eliminating the 20-mill property tax levy would save the owner of a $200,000 home $460 a year and the owner of a $300,000 home $920 a year.
“Property tax is a significant concern for everyone in Kansas, and this proposal aims to offer homeowners some relief from their property taxes,” the senators said in their letter.
The other two prongs of the proposal included:
- Vote legislation that would eliminate the need for legislative approval before a county can vote on a county-wide sales tax.
- Vote on a constitutional amendment to cap property taxes at 3%.
They also have proposed a two-day special session where the Legislature would forego its salary along with a recess to consider a veto override at a later date.
“We went for two years trying to get something done. The Senate has passed multiple programs. We haven’t tried this yet,” said Alley, the former majority leader.
“I think we owe it to voters and we owe it to the homeowners to do something,” he said.
Alley told senators in an email that he planned to talk to Masterson about the proposal Tuesday night.
Alley emphasized that the latest tax proposal was coming from senators and not from leadership.
Alley said the proposal would particularly benefit border counties that draw shoppers from across the state line to spend their money in Kansas and, as a result, generate more taxes for the state.
There has been some chatter in the Capitol about holding a special session to address property taxes, but it’s gotten little, if any, traction beyond gossip and speculation.
Although the new proposal shared this week with Republicans in the Senate renewed speculation about a special session, the bar is high to call one.
The governor can call a special session, although she’s expressed no interest in calling one. Or two-thirds of the Legislature could call a special session, something that’s only been done once in Kansas history.
Senate President Ty Masterson, who is running for governor, said the Legislature has taken steps to cut property taxes by passing constitutional amendments that would limit mushrooming property taxes.
“Fixing the property tax crisis is a priority for President Masterson,” spokesperson Garrett Henson said.
“That’s why the Senate passed legislation dealing with it this session with veto-proof margins,” Henson said.
“We’ll say it again: If the House has the votes to call a special session, the Senate stands ready to act.”
And while a Republican rival for governor, businessman Philip Sarnecki, has called on the Legislature to hold a special session to address property taxes, Masterson said in a recent interview that he had done what he could do to reduce property taxes.
“From my perspective and what I’ve been able to control, we multiple times passed things out,” he said in an interview days before the veto session began.
“I have zero control over what ultimately finishes the House. You’re going to get my naysayers out there – my opponents and the competition – trying to place that on me.
“I don’t know that lands with the Kansas people,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to put the failure of an entire legislature on one person.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins floated the idea of a special session in his weekly newsletter last week, although his office wouldn’t commit to making a formal request for a special session.
“While the 2026 legislative session is over, it’s never too late to take action,” Hawkins wrote in his newsletter.
“Gov. Kelly could call a special session at any moment if she wants to get serious about addressing the property tax crisis in our state,” he wrote.
“Republicans remain ready to deliver real action on property taxes, not the dismissive, halfhearted proposal put forth by the Governor and her Democrat colleagues,” he said.
Masterson has blamed the House – specifically a bloc of Democratic and Republican representatives – for derailing efforts to pass a constitutional amendment limiting property value increases.
An amendment capping property values failed four times in the House, including in the early morning hours of the last day of the legislative session when Masterson introduced an amendment that he thought would meet the House demands to cap property values using a rolling average or fair market value, whichever was less.
The amendment, however, died because it included language that would have allowed the Legislature to provide for limits on any class or subclass of property, which House members seized on as a cap that they had been opposing all along.
The Legislature did pass a bill that created a process where voters could sign a protest petition to block alocal government budget if it spent more than it did a year earlier plus the Midwest consumer price index up to 3% more, whichever was less.
But Kelly vetoed the bill, saying it offered false promises of reducing local taxes the state doesn’t control.
