By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Leavenworth County Sheriff Andy Dedeke and Labette County Commissioner Terry Weidert were reassured the Kansas Legislature would grant permission to place on countywide ballots proposals raising sales tax rates.
At the start of the 2026 legislative session in January, Dedeke explained during a Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee hearing a plan to ask Leavenworth County voters to consider a one-fourth cent sales tax increase to generate revenue for Leavenworth County’s emergency communications system. Weidert shared with senators the idea of funding the Parsons Fire Department and nine volunteer departments in Labette County through a one-eighth cent sales tax hike.
“I’m just going to say, ‘Support the bill,’ ” the sheriff said.
Sen. Caryn Tyson, the Parker Republican and chair of the Senate’s tax committee, said the Legislature had a history of deferring to county voters on sales tax issues.
“We’ll support it,” she said. “It’s that easy.”
However, progress toward adoption of legislation giving Kansas counties authority to put sales tax questions before voters collapsed when political acrimony between the House and Senate reached a fever pitch in the final hours of the annual legislative session. The Senate voted 30-8 to allow votes on sales tax proposals for Labette, Leavenworth and Butler counties, but deleted from House Bill 2535 authorization for sales tax votes in three other counties.
House members were enraged because sales tax ballot questions sought by Lincoln, Sheridan and Ellsworth counties were stripped from the bill. The House crushed the bill with a 107-14 vote to reject the Senate changes.
In the end, none of the six counties seeking authority for sales tax votes from the 2026 Legislature got what they wanted.
Firefighters in Labette County and 911 responders in Leavenworth County learned state politics wasn’t easy. Butler County won’t have the option of voting to buy down property taxes with a 0.25% to 1% increase in its sales tax. Lincoln County won’t be permitted to move on a 1% sales tax adjustment for construction projects. Sheridan and Ellsworth counties won’t be able to let voters consider using a 0.25% sales tax increase to fund new law enforcement centers.
The gridlock had nothing with individual proposals to rely on sales taxes to fund local government. The outcome was all about inside-the-dome politics.
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican and candidate for governor, shared with Senate colleagues his insider knowledge of this political science lesson. On the Senate floor, he offered justification for deleting three counties from the bill during questioning by Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence.
“I’m wondering if the senator from Butler could give us any information on … how that decision was made on which counties to include and which counties to exclude?” Francisco said.
Masterson said the sales tax bill was narrowed to discipline House Republicans who voted against Senate legislation designed to restrain city and county property taxes.
“If the House was serious about property tax relief, we’d be serious about giving counties a bunch of sales tax authority,” Masterson said. “The paring down was really tied to, frankly, representatives that voted ‘no’ on property tax relief. If those representatives of those counties voted ‘no,’ we didn’t include the sales taxes because they apparently think that property tax is sufficient.”
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, wasn’t impressed: “So, we are picking and choosing … based on how members’ voted?”
When HB 2535 shifted to the House on the final day of the legislative session, Rep. Adam Smith, a Weskan Republican and chair of the House tax committee, said with sarcasm the removal of Ellsworth, Lincoln and Sheridan counties from the bill surely had to be an oversight.
“I’m sure that wasn’t intentional,” he said.
Bunker Hill Rep. Troy Waymaster, the Republican chair of the House budget committee, said it was wrong to selectively disenfranchise his constituents in Lincoln County. They should be entrusted with the responsibility of voting on a 1% increase in the sales tax for county infrastructure projects, he said.
He didn’t mention Masterson by name, but his audience in the House understood where the message was aimed.
“Because of political theater, they were not included. That was explicitly said on the Senate floor,” Waymaster said in a speech to House colleagues. “This feels vindictive to me. It’s unjust. Not only to the citizens in those counties, but to all the citizens in the state of Kansas.”
He pointed out Ellsworth County voters in November approved by a 3-to-2 margin a proposal to assess a 0.25% sales tax for the county’s capital projects. The county was waiting for legislative approval to proceed.
Rep. Jim Minnix, R-Scott City, apologized in remarks to House colleagues because the bill’s hijacking meant Sheridan County didn’t have a chance to consider a one-fourth cent sales tax for its law enforcement center. He said the Legislature should repeal a law mandating counties come before the Legislature before placing sales tax increases on a ballot.
“I strongly believe that the local units of government, who represent the same constituents that I do, have the opportunity and the freedom to put that on a ballot,” Minnix said. “It’s ludicrous to come to Topeka and ask permission for something like this. I think it’s disgraceful that we’re not including the other three.”
Cities in Kansas weren’t required to seek authority from the Legislature when interested in adjusting sales tax rates and county governments shouldn’t be held to a different standard, said Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita.
“It’s terrible that every year we make the counties come up to the Legislature. Let the voters decide,” he said.
