Should old acquaintance be forgot?
It’s a New Years question etched in dichotomous reflection as we find ourselves thinking back and looking ahead at the same time.
A conundrum summed up by When Harry Met Sally’s Harry Burns (aka Billy Crystal) “Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances? Or does it mean that if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot ‘em?”
Got it?
As we reflect on Kansas political affairs circa 2025, these four notable “acquaintances” caught my eye as maybe something we should have forgotten.
• Property Tax Cuts
The Kansas Legislature leadership had made property tax cuts the first, second, and third priority of the 2025 session.
By the end of the session, they had saved a $200,000 homeowner $35 in property taxes and passed the largest income tax cut since Gov. Sam Brownback.
Furthermore, any future budget savings are dedicated to lowering income taxes until it hits 4%.
Gov. Laura Kelly proclaimed this switcheroo the “kiss of death for the Kansas budget.”
Meanwhile, a November legislative post audit found substantial underfunding of counties for mandated state services like elections, law enforcement, and motor vehicle registration which counties primarily funded with … you guessed it … property taxes.
• Gerrymander Fever
Was there a more undemocratic contagion threatening the sovereignty of states than the presidentially induced re-districting for partisan control of the U.S. House?
Kansas statehouse legislative leaders Ty Masterson and Dan Hawkins caught the fever boldly proclaiming their desire to gerrymander Kansas’ only Democratic congressional representative (Sharice Davids) out of existence in a special session.
The fever was broken by a handful of inoculated GOP House members only to be petulantly banished by Hawkins to the political equivalent of Siberia.
But Masterson, a GOP candidate for governor, has vowed to rally a veto-proof supermajority in 2026.
