By BILL FIANDER
Insight Kansas
In a world of cancelled flights, SNAP ping-pong, gerrymanders run amok, and “Dancing with the Stars” blackouts, it was refreshing to see an old friend – the town hall budget meeting – could not be shut down last week.
Billed as a statewide listening tour to guide her penultimate 2026 “People’s Budget”, I attended Governor Kelly’s fifth stop at the Leawood community center in Johnson County to hear some old-fashioned Q&A about budget priorities.
Intimately adorned with only microphones, chairs, and ideas for muses, the Governor and Budget Director/Secretary of Administration (Adam Proffitt) went full MTV Unplugged to hear from Kansans.
But it was not stripped-down acoustic rock songs we heard. Instead, the respectful crowd heard a budgetary medley of old hits, new material, and deep cuts that included:
• “She Works Hard for the Money” – Kelly is a notorious budget wonk. She admitted her obsession with the budget, forged through years as a legislator during the Brownback tax experiment. She considers it to be the most important thing she does. She and Proffitt contrasted the “People’s Budget” tour with the part-time Legislature’s confusing, shortsighted, and rogue budget process last session to which few in the public and front-facing agencies were invited.
• “Mr. Brightside” – Due in part to Proffitt’s elimination of budget maneuvers and accounting tricks inherited from Brownback/Colyer, the rainy-day fund has gone from zero to $2B. Kelly and he contrasted paying cash for the state’s two new office buildings in downtown Topeka vs. the Legislature’s unnecessary bonding ($325 million) and 4% flat income tax path as ominous warnings of “dark days” nobody wants to go back to.
• “Carry on Wayward Son” – While there was consternation about the welfare of children (childcare crisis, foster care, pre-K, etc.), Kelly hit a different note when asked about priorities to stem the state’s loss of younger adults. The focus on big economic development gains – like Panasonic in DeSoto and Hilmar Cheese in Dodge City – and attainable housing production must remain budget priorities to give young or boomerang Kansans a place to lay their weary heads.
• “Be True to Your School” – Fully funding public schools for the last seven years is certainly a greatest hit she does not mind spinning again. But maybe some notes were off key. Both the federal government and Kansas Legislature have woefully underfunded their statutory obligations to cover a percentage of special education costs in our school districts. This forces schools to rob Peter – general students - to pay Paul – special ed students. The angriest public rant (if you can call it that) also made it known retired schoolteachers have not seen a COLA increase since 1998.
• “Friends in Low Places” – For an encore, I asked Kelly about property tax solutions. Not a fan of caps and gimmicks, her main advice…sit down with local municipalities. They are the ones with the most to lose. Not the state. She pondered if state “unfunded mandates” on local government is a stone worth turning over. Given 100% of all property taxes ultimately goes to local government services, legislators might want to slip on down to the Oasis to visit their friends.
Budgets, not laws, deliver services. Good budgets don’t have to be rock shows. Stripped down, you’ll hear pitch perfect dynamics of people’s needs, values, and dreams. In a time where seemingly nothing worked as it should, it took meeting people where they are to bring meaning back to how it should.
Bill Fiander, Washburn University, is a university lecturer in Kansas specializing in public administration, urban planning, and state/local government.