By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA – Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins said the 2026 Legislature would strive to slash $200 million from the state government’s budget and seek to reduce expenditures on the Medicaid program delivering health care to low-income adults and children.
Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who has served 13 years in the Legislature, said during an interview at an American Legislative Exchange Council conference in Indianapolis that he was proud the 2025 Legislature took the lead in crafting the current state budget. Ahead of the 2025 session, a Republican-controlled committee of the House and Senate developed its own budget bill rather than wait for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s recommendation, as traditionally presented to lawmakers in January.
Despite Republicans in the House and Senate operating with partisan supermajorities since Kelly’s election in 2018, Hawkins was critical in the interview of what he calculated to be a 60 percent rise in spending during Kelly’s seven years as governor.
In the past legislative session, Hawkins said, the House and Senate whittled down the state budget for 2025-2026 to more than $200 million below the amount it approved for 2024-2025.
“That first $200 million is probably the easy one to cut,” Hawkins said during the ALEC interview. “It starts getting harder every year after that.”
He said the Legislature’s decision to consolidate its grip on the budget process at the Capitol resulted in a bill that spent less than the amount sought by Kelly.
“The governor still says that we spend too much, but we cut $43 million,” Hawkins told his ALEC audience.
In response to an inquiry, Hawkins’ staff clarified the actual year-to-year cut by the Legislature was $38 million below spending proposed by Kelly. The Legislature did vote for $43 million in deletions, but some were vetoed by the governor. The Legislature chose not to override all of Kelly’s line-item vetoes. That left the overall cut at $38 million – not $43 million.
