Kansas lawmakers form bipartisan Local Government Caucus to educate peers on local impact of bills
Rep. Allen Reavis, R-Atchison, appears for a Dec. 17, 2025, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — 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, “and it just felt like the effect it would have on local government wasn’t being fully measured.”
“If you’re 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,” he added.
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.
They appeared on the Kansas Reflector podcast with Nathan Eberline, executive director of the League of Kansas Municipalities, to talk about the caucus.
“I’m concerned that we’re doing one-size-fits-all legislation in Topeka,” Pishny said. “We mandate it and pass it out to 105 counties when there’s such a variation in operations among those 105.”
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 “revenue neutral rate.”
That means cities and counties have to lower their property tax rate each year to offset gains in property values — and then send notices and hold public meetings before returning to the same rate as before.
Rep. Lon Pishny, R-Garden City (left), and Nathan Eberline, executive director of the League of Kansas Municipalities, appear for a Dec. 17, 2025, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
Pishny said the revenue neutral rate was “troubling,” even if the premise was admirable.
“I pay taxes in multiple counties in Kansas, and I would prefer not to pay any more either,” he said. “However, 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.”
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.
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.
But, Pishny said, some remain skeptical.
“Leadership has even cautioned us they don’t want another lobbying group, and that’s not what we’re about,” Pishny said. “We are about education and information and helping people understand the role of local government and what the differences are across the state.”
Reavis said they don’t want to initiate legislation but would like to be responsive to bills and serve as a resource.
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.
Nathan Eberline, executive director of the League of Kansas Municipalities, appears for a Dec. 17, 2025, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)
Eberline recalled past efforts by the Legislature to eliminate certain costs, such as mortgage registration fees.
“I remember saying at the time, ‘Well, the more that you do this, the more you shift to the property taxes.’ Those services don’t go away,” Eberline said.
“And so here we are, 10 years later, and everybody’s frustrated by the property tax discussion,” he added.
Eberline said the communities that are thriving in Kansas tend to have something in common.
“It 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’re in this together,” he said.