{"id":98020,"date":"2026-01-05T14:49:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=98020"},"modified":"2026-01-05T14:49:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:49:47","slug":"lawmakers-form-bipartisan-local-caucus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/01\/05\/lawmakers-form-bipartisan-local-caucus\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Form Bipartisan Local Caucus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA \u2014 As freshmen legislators last year, Rep. Allen Reavis and Rep. Lon Pishny began having conversations about about the unspoken impact state laws and regulations have on city and county governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bills were being debated, Reavis said, \u201cand it just felt like the effect it would have on local government wasn\u2019t being fully measured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a legislator who lives in a large city, you may not have the understanding of what happens in a small town with that same legislation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reavis, an Atchison Republican, and Pishny, a Garden City Republican, realized they needed to find a way to help educate and work with their peers. Their idea was to bring together lawmakers with experience serving in or working for local governments, and they formed the bipartisan Local Government Caucus to address their concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They appeared on the Kansas Reflector podcast with Nathan Eberline, executive director of the League of Kansas Municipalities, to talk about the caucus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned that we\u2019re doing one-size-fits-all legislation in Topeka,\u201d Pishny said. \u201cWe mandate it and pass it out to 105 counties when there\u2019s such a variation in operations among those 105.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the tension flows from a combination of the Legislature mandating local government services, then trying to regulate local property taxes. For a while, the Legislature capped local property tax increases at the rate of inflation. Then, in 2021, the Legislature imposed a confusing \u201crevenue neutral rate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means cities and counties have to lower their property tax rate each year to offset gains in property values \u2014 and then send notices and hold public meetings before returning to the same rate as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pishny said the revenue neutral rate was \u201ctroubling,\u201d even if the premise was admirable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pay taxes in multiple counties in Kansas, and I would prefer not to pay any more either,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I do want that fire truck to show up at my house, or that ambulance to show up at my house, and some of the services are extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pishny served on the Finney County Commission for 10 years before being elected to his Kanas House seat. Reavis said he spent 13 years in city government and two years with the county before being elected to the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have identified about 40 legislators between the 125-member House and 40-member Senate who have local government experience. They said most are on board with the new caucus, and leadership supports the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Pishny said, some remain skeptical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeadership has even cautioned us they don\u2019t want another lobbying group, and that\u2019s not what we\u2019re about,\u201d Pishny said. \u201cWe are about education and information and helping people understand the role of local government and what the differences are across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reavis said they don\u2019t want to initiate legislation but would like to be responsive to bills and serve as a resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They identified several proposals already on their radar, including one that would eliminate a requirement that the Legislature approve local sales tax initiatives and just let local voters decide. They are also interested in discussion about franchise fees, which are charged to a utility to use public rights of way. There could be a challenge to the three-mile zoning jurisdiction that cities have in unincorporated areas. And they could see another wave of efforts to limit local property taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eberline recalled past efforts by the Legislature to eliminate certain costs, such as mortgage registration fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember saying at the time, \u2018Well, the more that you do this, the more you shift to the property taxes.\u2019 Those services don\u2019t go away,\u201d Eberline said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd so here we are, 10 years later, and everybody\u2019s frustrated by the property tax discussion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eberline said the communities that are thriving in Kansas tend to have something in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt almost always tends to be the place where the city is working with the county is working with the state legislators, and they do have this idea of shared governance, a shared constituency, and the idea that we\u2019re in this together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA \u2014 As freshmen legislators last year, Rep. Allen Reavis and Rep. Lon Pishny began having conversations about about the unspoken impact state laws and regulations have on city and county governments. Bills were being debated, Reavis said, \u201cand it just felt like the effect it would have on local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[244],"class_list":["post-98020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-kansas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}