Republicans and Democrats have promised to make Kansas more affordable.
Both parties have released their policy agendas for the 2026 legislative session. The session started Jan. 12, and both want to make Kansas a more affordable place to live and raise a family.
Democrats have proposed a host of legislative solutions, such as reducing child care costs, making housing more affordable and raising the minimum wage. Republicans want to pass property tax reform, cut waste and address rural health care costs.
Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, said some past legislative work should be addressing affordability already.
Last year, lawmakers passed a law to slowly reduce the state's income tax to 4%. That depends on having enough money in the state's emergency fund and enough income taxes collected to outpace inflation. It isn't clear how long it'll take for income tax to drop that low.
Republicans said property tax relief is not their only work on affordability, said Rep. Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican.
Croft didn't provide many concrete plans when asked about what else the legislature will do. He mentioned cutting waste at the government level, lowering energy costs and addressing housing.
He said there's a group working with Realtors, developers and local governments to talk about housing costs and what can be done to make it more affordable.
"You go to Johnson County," Croft said, "it's over $350,000 (for a house). I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem very affordable to me. So how do we get them down to, say, $150,000?"
Lawmakers are interested in looking at regulations that have made housing more difficult to build. They hope removing burdensome restrictions encourages builders to add more housing.
Democrats have an ambitious plan to address affordability — a plan that's not likely to gain Republican support.
Democrats want a $15 minimum wage, free school lunch for all kids, 12 weeks of maternal, parental and pregnancy leave, and 40 hours of annual sick leave for all employees in Kansas. They want the state and businesses to help pay for child care, caps on late fees for renters and other housing reform.
House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat, didn't have a cost estimate for these plans. He said those estimates will be calculated when the bills are introduced.
The state budget is tight, and Republicans are already preparing to cut millions of dollars. Woodard said he is exploring all types of ways to pay for these reforms, like expanded lottery options or legalized marijuana. He didn't rule out raising taxes on wealthy Kansans.
But proposals to pay for these reforms have little to no chance to pass the Republican supermajority.
Woodard said he knows that. This policy outline will be proposed as floor amendments to let conservatives know where the line in the sand is, he said.
"We'll work with (Republicans) to get as much of this done" as possible, Woodard said, "because whether the Republicans will support this or not, Kansans support these issues."
This story was originally published by The Beacon, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
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