- Coming up on IGI, the 2026 Kansas legislative session is underway and our panel of experts is here to break down all the possibilities.

Stay with us.

- This program on KTWU is brought to you by the Carol Jory Foundation.

- Hello and welcome to IGI, I am your host Bob Beatty.

One thing I've learned over the years is that Kansas politics is never dull, but 2025, well, that's a year for the record books.

Amazingly, Democrats and Republicans working together pulled off a deal that rocked the state in late December.

- We are excited about this regional partnership and committed to delivering real results that benefit Kansas, strengthen our region and uplift our local community.

With that said, chiefs Clark Hunt family.

Welcome to - Kansas.

So we'll be talking about the monster news that the Kansas City Chiefs are building a domed stadium and little old Kansas with our all star panel of experts.

But time stops for no one.

It's now 2026.

The governor has given her eighth and last state of the state speech.

The legislature is back in session and oh, it's an election year and candidates for governor are thick on the ground.

So as always, it's going to be busy, never dull in Kansas with possible mid decade redistricting still alive, banning cell phones in classrooms, higher education budget cuts, more anti DEI legislation.

There's lots of things to talk about.

Fortunately, we do have an all-star panel of Kansas politics experts to make sense of it all, or at least we hope so.

From the Kansas Reflector senior reporter Tim Carpenter from KSNT in Topeka as reporter and anchor, Rebecca Chung.

And from Emporia State University is Professor Michael Smith.

What we are fortunate to have such a, a great panel.

But before we get started on all these fascinating topics, I wanted to congratulate Tim Carpenter for being named to the Kansas Press Association Hall of Fame.

Tim, you're the only hall of famer in the All-Star panel, so I I can legitimately say it's an Hall of Fame panel.

- It is, it's a, it's a great, it's a great bit of notoriety.

I love it.

- And how long have you been in the business?

When did you, how many years since you first filed your first story - As a professional journalist?

This is my 39th year in Kansas being a reporter.

- Alright, well I'm being nice to you because you may not like the later - On You're gonna be - Cruel.

Yeah, I'm gonna be cruel.

Yeah.

Okay.

Obviously the Kansas City Chiefs are coming to Kansas and we do have a segment here on IGI now called Burn the Tape.

And earlier in May I predicted, well, you can see it for yourself.

Let's roll the clip.

And so we're, the, the take that, that I wanna make is that the Kansas City Chiefs are going to come to Kansas full stop.

And here's why.

The chiefs have indicated that they want a stadium where they can have Super Bowls where they want to make money, you know, and those, and they want to be competitive with other stadiums across the NFL.

Well, how much is that gonna cost?

Well, the Washington commanders are, are, have announced they're gonna build a $3.7 billion stadium and Washington DC is gonna chip in a billion dollars.

Okay, well what about, let's think about Missouri.

You'd say, well, Bob, they're gonna stay in Missouri.

Look at Missouri's track record, Kansas City a's go to Oakland, the baseball team st the St.

Louis Cardinals football team off to Arizona, the Kansas City Kings, NBA Oh, nobody likes the NBA.

They're off to Sacramento.

St.

Louis Rams football off to La Missouri is one of the worst records of keeping pro teams, you know, in America.

So that's, they got that going for them.

Okay, so where are the chiefs gonna get this money?

Right?

Is it gonna be from Missouri where their own legislators are saying their discussions about this are, quote, dysfunctional Clay County people saying Clay County will have to have a vote to decide that you think the chiefs wanna vote over stadium financing.

The governor of Missouri said quote, not in favor of just throwing money at stadiums.

Well, guess who is in favor of throwing money at stadiums Kansas?

They, they, they're gonna do it.

Well, are you saying you think, you think one of these - Franchises is coming to Kansas?

- Yeah, the Kansas City - Chiefs.

Now what you really need to think about is the Royals going downtown like they wanted in the first place.

And the chiefs are gonna stay precisely where they are - Right now.

Yeah.

And you're gonna get a Super Bowl in Arrowhead Stadium.

- They can build a new stadium in - The parking - Lot right there for a couple billion bucks.

Yeah, we're we're throwing the flag on you, Bob.

I I you're you're, that is, that is a 10 yards, 15 yards.

You're wrong.

- Wrong.

Well, we call this burn the tape because if I was wrong I probably wouldn't be showing it, but, so you can take my Hall of Fame citation back because I was wrong about that.

No, that's the fun of it.

You know, months and months ago things were going on.

So you didn't, let's start with Tim at, at the time you did not think the chiefs were coming.

So what was it, what I, some of the things I said, what do you think was the key - Ingredient?

Think the key was that Kansas offered the chiefs too much money and they had a, they, they just possibly couldn't possibly say no.

Rebecca, you, - I, I'm not gonna show it, but later on you, you vehemently tell me I'm wrong as well.

But yeah, we won't show that clip.

But what, what do you think was, because you didn't think they were coming as well, so what do you - Think?

Well, Bob, I'm glad you burned that tape.

- Yeah, I, I burned that piece.

At least it's in a computer somewhere.

- I, you know, in my head though, I will say I'm, I was a bit on the fence about it just because it was so much money and I don't know what the long term risk could be.

Right.

However, I do think because of how much Kansas threw at this team, they did see it as the better deal compared to Missouri.

So in the back of my head, you know, I think I was trying to pay devil's advocate here.

- Yeah.

And I think at one point, you know, some point months ago when I read that chiefs really wanted a dome and that's why I mentioned that they're so expensive.

And once that sort of, that idea came that they want a dome, that's where it was gonna be now into the four, three, $4 billion - I dollars.

I think the court think the court to what we were saying is, it's just so easy to do.

Disagree with you Bob.

That just felt, I compelled to say no.

- Now Michael, you wanted to, you were telling me earlier you wanted to say something about the maybe the Royals, 'cause technically they're still looking for a, you know, a new stadium.

Right.

- Deal's still on the table.

I'll predict that they're not going to the Asperia campus, formerly the Sprint campus.

There's too much neighborhood resistance.

So I think the Royals are still up in the air.

I mean, Tim could still turn out to be right that they might go to Kansas.

Well that, that would be nice.

Downtown Kansas City.

- Okay, we'll keep that tape for now.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Obviously there's a lot more to say about, about that.

A lot of money involved and also just a lot going on with that.

Probably we'll have a, a special on the, on the big move down the line, but we have a lot to, to talk about the governor's state of the state.

She gave that, and by the way, in that state of the state, she mentioned the chiefs seven times.

So there's a lot of other topics.

But one thing I wanted to sort of quickly get into is when I was at the state of the state and I looked up in the gallery, I saw several gubernatorial candidates in the gallery watching.

And then I looked at the legislature and saw a couple more.

How will the governor's race with all these candidates impact this session?

Maybe yes or no.

I don't know if it will, you know, what do you think, Rebecca?

Can it, - Will the governor's race impact - This session?

Impact the session?

What might get passed or even - The dynamics?

Oh, for sure.

I, I definitely think so.

It'll impact what policies get passed, what comes up.

I think something I wanted to note about the governor's state of the state address and what I was hearing from several lawmakers on both sides after the governor's speech is what happened to property taxes.

The governor, - She didn't mention it right, - Right.

She didn't mention it much and the governor boasted a lot of bipartisan wins that the state could accomplish or has accomplished.

But property tax relief seems to be something that's important for both sides.

And it wasn't mentioned to the degree that a lot of people wanted it to be.

That was something that Republicans were saying, but even some Democrats were concerned about why that wouldn't have not come up.

So we'll have to see if that, you know, some plan comes together toward the end because it is a big issue for voters as well.

- And the problem with that, Rebecca, is with property taxes, the issue is assessments, it's not levies.

And then we're talking about taking away from the counties the ability to set their own assessments and it gets really messy really quickly.

They also fund schools.

Yeah.

- So one of the candidates for governor, the Republican nomination is the Senate president Ty Masterson of the Wichita area.

And on the top of his prop, a priority list for the 26th session is a constitutional amendment on property taxes.

So even if Laura Kelly forgot about it, the Republicans didn't - It, it, to Michael's point, it is very complicated because of it impacts the state and local, the cities and the counties.

And there is now even a new caucus in the legislature, the state and local caucus made up of legislators who are wanting to represent.

And I, I kind of wonder if that's because of this property tax issue.

So they can say, hey, yes you can pass this, but what's it gonna do to cities and counties where all the property taxes.

So in terms of the governor's race, I guess I'm sort of asking are there any, okay, yes, you mentioned Ty Masterson, so that would be an issue he would love to see passed because then he's running for governor, right.

Is that's what you're sort of alluding to, right?

Yeah.

And say - Go on the campaign track broadly, structurally in terms of the session, the, the governor's race and, and at least there's three candidates for governor.

Well there's seven candidates for statewide office in the legislature and three of 'em are running for governor.

I think they wanna speed up this session, get out maybe late late March so they can get out the campaign trail, raise money and and get at it.

- Right.

And pass something they can campaign on.

- Yeah, - Yeah.

- Keep - It simple and pass two or three things that they can, they can claim victory for.

Right.

So is that, is that an advantage for, I mean there's some candidates that aren't in the legislature, you know, Vicky Schmidt, obviously the insurance commissioner Jeff Collier, former governor, they're not in the legislature.

I have a feeling that, I mean Masterson spoke when the chiefs announced they were coming and he, he is a jovial guy but he had a big grin on his face.

So that also may be something he could talk about when he is running.

So it is a point an advantage maybe this session to be in the legislature.

- Well would say so.

And keep in mind that our politics today are very primary driven in Kansas.

That's particularly on the Republican side.

So look for the Republicans to move right.

And to try to throw some red meat to their constituents.

They're not gonna move to the center.

The Democrats might, but they're in the minority.

- But maybe not necessarily you're right.

But maybe not necessarily even want them to pass and go into a special session.

Correct.

Going overwriting - Vetoes and - Say I - Introduced this.

But Exactly Bob, lots of signaling.

It doesn't mean this legislature's because in the passed - Yeah, the red meat, I like that In the house, one of the first things they did in the first week of the session was to try to pass a measure that said the World Health Organization has no standing in Kansas.

So that that doesn't really have much practical application.

It's just a headline grabber that somebody can throw out there.

- Yeah.

So yeah, between May in that clip you saw when I had the beard and now the drama for all of us we're watching Kansas politics was an attempt to redistrict in Kansas, mid decade redistricting.

Donald Trump called for it.

And then Texas and now and Democratic states, California, they all got in the act and little old Kansas with its four seats was, was targeted as well.

And it didn't happen.

There was many legislative leaders on the Republican side that wanted a special session just to do that.

Okay.

So there's now talk about it possibly happening in this legislative session, will it happen or what are the dynamics for it possibly to happen?

And it's pretty big deal because there is one Democratic congresswoman Cherise Davids who wants to start on that one.

- No way.

They have the votes to override the veto.

So it would be strictly signaling Joe, it would also tear apart the Republican caucus in Johnson County.

- Yeah.

- Because Johnson County business leaders are against it.

- Yeah, I would agree.

Right now it's looking unlikely they don't have the votes on the house side.

The pros of this would be that if they did go ahead and draw those new maps, they could lock in a GOP lien in a district that's currently held by Cherise Davids who they've been trying to ous from Congress for years.

The cons though, to Michael's point, is perhaps upsetting some voters in Johnson County and, and that would be a lot of voters.

Especially if you're running for governor, right?

- Yeah.

Even introducing it keeps, I mean I'm on everybody's email list, you know, keep and re sharise David's and she's using this issue to raise a lot of - Money.

Could I make a point too?

Yeah.

I don't know how many of the viewers know this.

Did you know Johnson County had a blue shift between 2020 and 2024?

Kamala Harris got a higher percentage of votes than Joe Biden in Johnson County.

That now that's mostly because of a turnout drop, but that's pretty remarkable.

It looks like Johnson County being blue is here to stay.

- Which of the incumbent Republicans?

We have three in the US house and then there's Sharice David the only, only woman, only minority if, if you jiggle those districts around.

So some Republican has to step in.

Who wants to take on a busload of, of Angry Johnson County voters, centrist and Democrats.

You know, who wants that?

I I if I'm, if I'm an incumbent Republican in Congress, I don't want that on, on my deck, you know?

That's right.

So, so that's gonna be part of the question.

Where's the candidate gonna come from?

That can be Cherise Davis.

You know, they, they gerrymandered her district before cut half of Wyandot County out of her district and she still won by double digits.

She was a formidable candidate.

- I, I've argued it currently, she's the most formidable candidate of all politicians in Kansas.

Just because of some of the things you're saying.

She's so unique and she's combative when she wants to - Be.

Amusingly suggested that if, 'cause us Senator Roger Marshall's up for reelection this year, she kind of threw down that if they x at her out of her congressional house seat that she just might run for the US Senate.

Oh I, which is just not the kind of thing that Roger Marshall wants to hear, but do - You think it was amusing or do you think she means it and she would run for another office whether senate or something.

I, she's - Still pretty young.

I try not to crawl into the head of politicians, so who knows.

But it was just an interesting line that you could include in your story and it, it got Marshall's attention.

- Well, I'll stick my neck out there.

I think if she's gerrymandered out she will run for another office.

- Oh wow, okay.

Wow.

I mean that would be wild.

I mean I just, did you get that on tape?

- Yeah, - We're we're, this is all being taped.

- We're taping right now too, - So thank you Michael.

We're gonna move on.

Although that could be a whole other show.

The, the governor interstate of the state.

Tim's again, we're both older Tim, so I'm not gonna make any age dispersions, but we've been around in many state of the states, I can't remember the last one where a policy issue from Governor Kelly, maybe even Sebelius, got a standing ovation from the Republicans.

But Kelly got one with her cell phone ban comment.

So it's, maybe you can remember one, but that I thought, wow, this is rare.

So it looks like - That's probably gonna pass.

So there's bipartisan support for the idea of banning cell phones for kids during school hours.

And I think there's already Bill introduced, this is something that's been tried elsewhere.

Australia for some reason social, it caught fire in Kansas and I think the governor talked about it perhaps helping students with their mental health.

But the house speaker, Dan Hawkins spoke about it in terms of trying to improve students' test scores, essentially improving academic performance.

And I'm kind of curious what kind of facts they have behind those two notions.

Of course, cell phones are an impediment if they're dangling around students' necks when they should be studying at school.

But there's, there's a lot, you know, people are really tethered to them.

I'm not sure, I'm not sure what, what the response is gonna be.

You could have, you could have like fourth graders marching through the school at protest something, but - Guess what?

They don't vote.

They - Don't vote - And that's not who they're - Going to, they could - Be a walkout.

The kindergartners - Just walked out.

- Well and there's the whole helicopter parents issue too.

Parents wanna contact their kids 24 7.

- Exactly.

- And they worry about an emergency.

So that's gonna be a factor.

- Yeah, I think there will be exceptions to this for medical issues and things like that that students will still have them in under some circumstances.

But just generally wandering around the halls with your face stuck in your phone and and clicking away that that's what they want to get rid of.

- Yeah, I think it also calls into question how is this going to be enforced and what are the consequences if someone decides to have their cell phone in class?

Right.

I think some local school districts could also think maybe we don't want a blanket mandate and maybe we wanna do our own thing.

- Yeah.

Once again, the legislature, you know, the Legisla Kansas legislature doesn't like the federal government telling the Kansas legislature what to do.

But once again, the Kent's legislature thinks they should tell duly elected local school board members what to do.

- Which circles back to property taxes.

Should they be micromanaging how the counties, I'm getting D here, assess property.

They certainly want to, yeah, they certainly want to.

Yeah.

But the counties don't.

- No - Cities and counties, schools.

Right.

- I I, I read something but I'll, I'll take credit for myself.

When did, why did we ever think it was a good idea for students of any age to have cell phones in a classroom ever?

- Maybe because they can use laptops in classrooms.

Are we gonna ban laptops in classroom?

- Yes, - Sure.

- Oh - You Bob, you really are - Showing - Your age, you know, doesn't mean he is wrong, but in a semi-serious vein, a lot of it came with parents worried about the kids.

- Right.

- And a lot of it actually has to do with the trip to and from school not actually being in school, which leaves the door open.

Right.

Because you could say no phones in school, but you can bring it, put it in the little pocket thing and then you can have it with you going home.

So that might be a compromise with the parents.

- This sounds like a whole show.

'cause this is fascinating.

It's like how did we even, how did we make it without cell phones?

How Right.

We're here right pen and paper, but we're the last few, right.

How - Did we get to school?

Well Bob, it weighs you down when you're walking to school in the snow uphill both ways.

Several miles to have that cell phone.

- This this sounds like a, a whole show.

It's, it's really interesting.

Okay, I wanted another topic is that, that maybe Tim could tells, 'cause I think there might have already been a hearing on it.

Is DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, right?

There was a bill passed last year, but apparently it's not enough because other states ha passed the DEI bills, I think Texas where they're going in and looking at people's professor's syllabi.

So going into the classroom, whereas Kansas is a, you can correct me if I'm wrong, I think it was mostly about practices of hiring and things.

They did look at syllabi.

So I've heard that some legislators want more again, more D more anti DEI bills.

So are we gonna see that happen?

There is - A bill.

- Okay.

Thank - You.

H Bill 2 4 2 8.

The freedom from Indoctrination act.

It's based on model legislation from the Goldwater Institute would prohibit any, any, it's a variety of different terms like whiteness, white privilege, all kinds of things like that could not be a part of any course that's required part of any program.

Talk about signaling - And And that's, so that's been, - That's a bill.

It's been - Filed.

- Okay.

- It's been filed.

- I think the intent is to make sure that the politicians are micromanaging the colleges and universities to the extent that they're telling people what kind of curriculum to offer.

And apparently maybe there were legislators that assumed they had already waited into that realm but this time they're gonna make sure - And it's an election year but also kind of behind the scenes there's a lot of bad blood between the Board of Regents and the legislature.

Right now they are fighting and I think that's part of what this is, is the legislature keeps signaling to the board of Regents what they want 'em to do.

But the board of Regents is not appointed by the legislature.

And so behind the scenes there's a lot of tension there.

I have a feeling k bor is not happy about this bill.

- Yeah, this would definitely give them some leverage I think in higher ed budget negotiations when it's like, you know, comply or you can get your funding cut.

I think on the other hand, to Michael's point, it plays strongly with the conservative base during an election year when you're saying we wanna keep classrooms neutral and we wanna get rid of quote unquote taxpayer funded ideology.

On the other hand, could this impact recruiting for teachers and students outside of the state?

- Oh yeah.

And I, we'll see.

But the trend seems now to be wavering.

Especially I think 'cause of what's going on in Texas, which is pretty wild.

- It is pretty wild.

- Which is looking over syllabi and being telling professors.

The biggest example is the philosophy pre professor who can't teach.

- You guys are faculty.

Don't you think there's a gap between the syllabus and what you actually say to students during a three month period?

- Well there's a gap but in the syllabus it might have an article but in this example by Plato are reading by Plato where in Texas they said no you can't have that reading.

- What would be wrong?

An article about DEI that say praises it so a student can better understand the arguments.

Why that kind of information would be poison - Poisonous.

Well that's the debate that's going on.

- How do you teach one way or the other without people reading and learning about both sides - Of the question.

If you think about the scholar Alan Bloom from the eighties who the Reagan and Bush administration loved.

He was a Plato scholar.

So this is a major, major shift.

Also, Bob, to your point you teach at Washburn, which is not a KBOR school.

They did call in our syllabi and they gave us about one week to submit them.

So that actually has happened in Kansas and they've already gigged English textbook being used at K State.

- Alright, I didn't know that.

So maybe another show we have to do here.

Let's do very quickly, we -just one prediction.

We won't get into big arguments for the upcoming session.

We can get into big argument.

Tim, you we got prediction for this upcoming - For the session.

Let's just say something about the governor's race.

I think in the Republican primary, very crowded, I think the continus are really former governor Jeff Collier, the Senate President Ty Masterson and insurance commissioner Vicki Schmidt.

And I will predict that Vicki Schmidt outperforms expectations.

- Okay, that's interesting one and I might circle back to that.

Rebecca, what would - You I will say despite the current lack of support for redrawing new maps, Republicans will still find a way to either get that support in some way or another to get new maps redrawn and passed or close to it.

- Really?

- Yes.

- That is a - Burn the tape if I'm wrong.

- I'm glad you you're going, you know, going out there.

It's just fascinating to me 'cause there's so many pros and cons to it.

I just think the Johnson County aspect, but you're right, they may stretch ahead Michael, - I think the cell phone ban will pass.

I think a water bill may pass.

Other than that, I think it's gonna be an extremely unproductive session.

- Well some would say if they don't pass much it's a very productive, - It depends on your perspective, doesn't it?

Session it won't produce a lot.

Whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing is a whole separate debate.

- Yeah.

We only have a a little bit of time so we keep saying things like that and the legislature's gonna cut the higher ed budget.

- Yeah, they're already gonna cut it.

Tim, don't you read the reflector that - Occasionally.

So I'm gonna ask Tim, our hall of famer.

Yes.

Is there any surprises we should look for?

I think what Rebecca said kind of surprised me.

I I'll be, I don't think it's bad.

You're, you're make, you're going on a prediction and hard.

That's great.

But I think it'd be a surprise if they do it, but they very well might.

Do - You see any surprises?

So I should just keep track.

Yeah, it was like the World Health Organization idea.

I'm just gonna keep track.

Maybe there'll be a dozen bills like that that get on the house or Senate floor.

You just have to ask yourself, why are we doing this?

Aren't there more important issues out there?

So we're gonna be surprised at some of this.

Yeah, just the issues that come up.

I don't say it's stupid but let's just say it's a waste of time.

- Alright, well thank you so much for joining me and actually I've gotten ideas for future shows already and we've got that governor's race, so we're, we'll be back I think is is my main point.

So that's all the time we have for this episode of IGI.

If you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, send us an email at issues@ktw.org.

If you would like to view this program again or any previous episodes of igi, visit us online@watch.ktw.org.

For IGI, I'm Bob Beatty.

I thank my guests and thank you all for watching.

- This program on KTWU is brought to you by the Carol Jory Foundation.