The Kansas Legislature late Thursday approved a $10.63 billion state general fund budget for fiscal year 2026 that includes a 1.5% across-the-board cut in state spending that is far more limited than what was originally proposed.
The new state general fund budget crafted by the Legislature for 2026 is about $210.5 million less than what was approved for fiscal year 2025, although projections show the state’s ending balance could be nearly a half-billion in the red by 2028.
The Legislature wrote its own budget this year rather than start with Gov. Laura Kelly’s proposed budget, which requested $10.65 billion in state general fund spending.
The 2026 budget approved by the Legislature leaves the state with an estimated ending balance of about $424.6 million in fiscal year 2027, although the state would be about $461.5 million in the red by 2028 and $877.2 million in the red for 2029.
The state would still have a rainy-day fund of about $1.8 billion by fiscal year 2028 under the approved budget. The fund would total $1.86 billion in 2029.
The overall budget spends about $25.6 billion in all funds in fiscal 2026, about $1.48 billion less than will be spent in fiscal 2025.
The budget, approved 24-16 in the Senate and 89-36 in the House, includes a 1.5% across-the-board cut that saves $7.3 million in state general fund spending.
The Legislature pared back the scope of the spending cut so it would not include the judicial and legislative branch, Corrections, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Sentencing Commission, veterans’ homes, the attorney general, state hospitals, the Highway Patrol and regents institutions.
The Senate lost a number of Republicans on the budget including Sens. Mike Thompson of Shawnee, Renee Erickson of Wichita, Virgil Peck of Havana, Tory Blew of Great Bend, Caryn Tyson of Parker, Adam Thomas of Olathe and Stephen Owens of Hesston.
“Putting taxpayers first has long been my motto. It has served me well,” Peck said. “No one in District 15 criticizes me for my small-government stance except for those who really want to balloon up government.”
Peck said he could not support a budget that increased spending by $2 billion over a four-year period while increasing the number of state employees on average of 218 a year.
“When we continue to spend as we have ballooning up the budget, it makes it so much more difficult to do the right thing,” he said. “The right thing is to cut taxes in Kansas.”
Over in the House, Democratic state Rep. Barbara Ballard of Lawrence was supportive of the budget.
“We worked hard on this budget,” Ballard said during the House floor debate.
“No one likes cuts and maybe there are some areas that we didn’t need to cut as much. Special ed was one of those for many of us,” she said.
“There’s always something to complain about a budget,” she said.
“In my estimation, this is really not the strongest budget we’ve had, but neither is it really the weakest,” she said.
Democratic state Rep. Henry Helgerson of Eastborough warned that the state was facing difficult budget times ahead, pointing to the fact that the state was projected to be in the red by fiscal year 2028.
“We are in a financial mess,” Helgerson said. “The chickens are coming home to roost and we are in a hole.”
The budget includes $40 million in state general fund dollars for state employee pay raises and includes language authorizing the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to issue up to $80 million in bonds for a new headquarters to locate in downtown Topeka.
The budget also includes $24 million from interest generated by federal COVID-relief funds to construct a new central dispatch center for the Kansas Highway Patrol in Salina.
It also adds in another $19 million from the same pot of money to finish the Docking Building renovations.
The budget also allocates $4 million in interest generated by federal COVID-relief funds to help attract unmanned aircraft systems testing or manufacturing to Kansas. The money would pay for tower upgrades, a vertiport and office space.
It also includes $10 million for maintenance, repairs and overhaul of airplanes at the Topeka Regional Airport.
The budget deletes $500,000 in lottery proceeds for the Sunflower Summer Program, which provides families free access to more than 220 tourism attractions across the state.
The budget includes language prohibiting reimbursements for venues in counties with a population of 15,000 or more that do not charge admission to program participants. It also limits reimbursements to one parent or guardian.
The budget includes $10 million for special education, compared to the $72.6 million a year for four years that the governor had proposed.
The budget no longer withholds $4 million from the budgets for the governor and the Department of Administration until it can be certified that programs for diversity, equity and inclusion have been eliminated.
The budget still includes the DEI requirement, but no longer withholds the money from either the governor’s office or the Department of Administration.
The budget approved by the Legislature kept funding for the Kansas Arts Commission intact, but directs that 60% of the money be awarded to applicants for matching grants located in counties with a population of 85,000 or less in 2026.
The budget directs that the other 40% go to applicants for matching grants in counties with more than 85,000 people.
The budget did not cut $850,000 for the Main Street program, but it did trim $200,000 from public broadcasting and $300,000 from Junior Achievement.
It also cut $10 million for the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy, a new program that establishes a framework for increasing literacy, and creates a structure to implement and oversee the initiative through the Board of Regents’ new Office of Literacy.
The House had proposed $2 million for the program and ultimately agreed to the Senate position of not funding the program.
The budget retained $73,000 in interest generated by federal COVID-relief funds for preparations for the state to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday in 2026.
The Legislature also agreed to add $10 million in state general funds to the attorney general’s budget for 2025 to hire a private vendor for firearm detection software to be used only in public school buildings and for no more than two years.
It also included $1.25 million for a public-private partnership, overseen by the Children’s Cabinet, for child care facility operations in southwestern Kansas for fiscal 2026.
