MESSAGES FROM THE GOVERNOR

Senate Bill No. 14

An Act concerning the state budget; providing for a continuous budget until amended, lapsed or eliminated by the legislature; providing temporary reallocations; establishing conditions and limitations therefor; repealing section 1 of 2025 Senate Bill No. 14.

Message to the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

Kansas entered statehood on January 29, 1861. Since that time, every single Legislature has managed to pass a budget that became law. In fact, technically speaking, it’s the Legislature’s only constitutionally required job.

If this Legislature cannot do what every previous legislature has been able to do since our founding—through periods of war, famine, pandemic, recession, the Dust Bowl, and even the Great Depression—then they will have to do it over my veto because I will not sanction it, nor will the people of Kansas.

This bill is the latest attempt at legislative overreach into the executive branch and is really nothing more than an invitation to government dysfunction—just like we see in Washington, D.C. Is that what we want for Kansas?

I am confident that this Legislature will be able to continue the tradition of completing their constitutionally mandated duties, within the constitutionally mandated timeframe just as every one of their predecessors has been able to do.

Therefore, under Article 2, Section 14(a) of the Constitution, I hereby veto Senate Bill 14.

Laura Kelly, Governor

Dated March 26, 2025.