The House budget-writing committee on Thursday voted to keep $1 million from the Commerce Department’s administrative expenses until lawmakers get information they want about how much is spent on economic development incentives.
Republican state Rep. Kristey Williams, vice chair of the committee, made the motion holding the money back from Commerce as the House Appropriations Committee debated the agency’s roughly $183 million budget for fiscal year 2026.
Williams wants the agency to supply the Legislature with information about how much is being paid out in development incentives. She specifically wants to know how that is affecting the state’s general fund.
“I want to know exactly what we’re spending in economic development incentives,” Williams said after the committee adjourned. “I think it’s a fairly large number, and that does impact our budget.”
She wanted to know the amount of incentives that have been claimed and how much is available.
The Commerce Department could not be immediately reached for comment late Thursday morning shortly after the committee adopted the motion.
The committee also trimmed funding for other programs within the Commerce Department.
Affected programs included the Kansas Arts Commission, public broadcasting, the Kansas Main Street Program, a campaign to lure people back to Kansas and another program allowing Kansas families to visit state attractions for free.
The committee cut $500,000 for the arts, leaving the program with $1 million.
Republican state Rep. Kyle Hoffman of Coldwater said that while the commission sought $1.5 million, he thought $1 million would be sufficient.
“They’re still going to have a $1 million to work with for them to go after federal grants,” Hoffman said. “I think they’ll be OK.
“They’ve actually gotten a lot less than that in the past, so $1 million is pretty generous,” he said.
Democratic state Rep. Pam Curtis of Kansas City fought to keep the $500,000.
She pointed out that $1.3 million of the $1.5 million allocated for the arts last year went back to Kansas communities.
“As we talk about trying to get people to move back to Kansas and to keep our folks staying in Kansas, I think the arts play a very important role in that,” she said.
“We have to have cultural amenities. We have to have things for people to do.”
Republican state Rep. Bill Sutton of Gardner saw it differently.
“I’m a big fan of art. But state-sponsored art, that’s an entirely different animal,” he said.
The new budget for the Commerce Department eliminated $1.5 million for the Love, Kansas campaign, which was intended to help lure people back to Kansas.
Last summer, the Commerce Department launched a campaign – funded by a $2 million appropriation from the Legislature – for Kansans to reach out to people they know in other states and sell them on Kansas attributes that might lead them back home.
The new budget also cuts back the amount of money that will be spent on the Sunflower Summer Program by $2 million. It still has $1 million in the budget.
The program provides free access to more than 220 tourism attractions across the state.
The program is credited for getting families traveling around the state and spending money in various locations.
Republican state Rep. Lisa Moser, chair of the budget subcommittee that oversees the Commerce Department Budget, said the agency has found a way to run the program on less money.
The program generally runs from May to August, and Commerce could run the program in a more condensed time period for less money.
She also said that one parent or guardian would be eligible for the complimentary admission.
The committee also cut about $178,000 for the state’s international trade program, which one lawmaker identified as the state’s Japan office.
“I want to make sure that if you’re removing these funds, you’re not removing the ability to have that office because it’s important” said Republican state Rep. Sean Tarwater, alluding to the recruitment of Panasonic.
Hoffman said he was only cutting $178,000 and there would still be about $1 million left in the budget for international trade.
“My feeling is if they’re having success in one office…maybe they need to abandon an office that they’re not having as much success in and go for it,” he said.
Democratic state Rep. Henry Helgerson of Eastborough got the committee to cut public broadcasting by about $200,000 to $500,000. The vote was 12-8.
“How many stations do we have in Kansas? Is there any kind of consolidation where the signal could be brought from one area to another for cooperative more cost efficiency? No,” Helgerson said.
“We keep funding the same model even though whole broadcast area is a different model now,” he said. “In Wichita, we have a station that has a brand new facility.
“They continually complain about they don’t have enough money from the state, but they had enough money to do a lot of enhancements.”
