18 After a whirlwind election cycle that focused on unfavorable ratings of U.S. President Joe Biden, former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s record, and concerns about the economy, Governor Laura Kelly successfully held off a challenge by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. Immediately following Kelly’s victory speech, Republican Party officials took critical aim at the Independent Gubernatorial campaign run by Kansas Senator Dennis Pyle. Pyle changed his party affiliation from Republican to Independent to run as a conservative alternative to Schmidt. When all the votes were counted, he received close to the number of votes that separated Kelly and Schmidt. However, that alone was not the deciding factor in this race. Pyle’s presence in the race made it difficult for Schmidt’s campaign message to attract and retain the independent voters, moderate and conservative wings of the party. Nonetheless, most statehouse insiders agree the Kelly campaign ran a great campaign focused on governing from the middle and keeping our schools funded. That message ultimately won the day. We congratulate Governor Kelly on her hard-fought victory and look forward to working with her as she begins her second four-year term. Governor Kelly Re-Elected, Supermajorities Remain, and Your 2023 Legislative Preview Governor Kelly will be in a position familiar to her first term, negotiating with a Republican supermajority in both the Senate and House. Only the House was up for election this year, and Republicans held their supermajority, retaining 85 of their 86 seats. That retention is critical because 84 votes are needed to pass constitutional amendments or override a gubernatorial veto, setting the stage for ongoing veto battles between Governor Kelly and the Republican-controlled Legislature. Although the Governor and Legislature will have their differences on policy, there is momentum from both sides of the political aisle to work together on meaningful reform to state tax policy. Republicans and Democrats both campaigned on this issue due to the favorable fiscal position the state is predicted to be in for the next two years. According to the most recent report by the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group (CREG), the group tasked with predicting the state’s financial picture, Kansas is looking at having a $2.3B surplus in FY 2023 and $3.2B in FY 2024. These large ending balances help fuel conversations to return money to Kansas taxpayers through property tax relief or to exempt retirement benefits, such as social security, from state tax policy. Both will absolutely be debated next year, along with other corporate, sales, and food tax reductions. The question will be, how much should the state return in this unpredictable and inflationary economic situation without being put in a position to raise taxes again to fund the government? Alex Orel, KBA SVP-Government Relations
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