A Kansas homeowner opens a property-tax bill and looks for the number that changed. Beginning with the 2026 tax year, Senate Bill 35 gives that family a clear answer: the Republican majority removed two statewide building-fund levies, retiring a combined 1.5 mills.
The enacted measure eliminates one mill for the Kansas educational building fund and one-half mill for the state institutions building fund. The conference report uses a precise word: the state “discontinues” both levies.
One mill equals one dollar per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The savings vary by property, and city, county, and school-district levies remain. That does not make the state cut imaginary. Kansas removed a statewide charge and made the change visible on the tax side of the ledger.
The spending fight moves to the State General Fund. The conference report requires transfers of $56 million to the Educational Building Fund and $25 million to the State Institutions Building Fund in FY2027, with later adjustments and a 2% annual increase for the institutions fund.
The University Contractors Association of Kansas opposed the bill. In written and oral testimony, the association warned that moving to annual appropriations “could destabilize the ongoing repair of educational facilities” and add an ever-growing expense to the State General Fund. Its members argued that maintenance not paid for now will cost more later.
That is a budget question, not a veto over taxpayers. The state can remove a levy and fund repairs through appropriations. The new arrangement requires future lawmakers to defend building transfers in the open instead of allowing a permanent mill to disappear inside the tax system.
Dedicated revenue flows without an annual vote. General Fund transfers force elected officials to defend maintenance against every competing demand. Kansas taxpayers can reasonably prefer that kind of accountability, especially when the charge on their bill has been collected year after year.
That shift changes the political risk. A future lawmaker who wants repairs funded can vote for the transfer and explain it; a lawmaker who wants the mill back must explain why. Either way, the spending sits where voters can see it instead of hiding in a levy that rolls forward on its own.
That is the point of making the charge visible: voters can judge the tradeoff themselves.
Ty Masterson put the broader demand before the Senate in his opening-session remarks: “We must act.” He did not cast every vote, but Republican Senate leadership helped put an actual cut where families can see it.
SB 35 is enacted law, and the statewide levies end after tax year 2025. The individual dollar effect is not identical, and the State General Fund carries replacement obligations. Kansas Republicans still erased the levy instead of merely promising relief, forcing Topeka to defend every dollar that follows.