Turnaround Political Report — February 19, 2026

The 2026 session has been a fight from day one. We've been in the Capitol daily — monitoring committees, testifying on bills, mobilizing our affiliates. Here's where things stand.

Solidarity Day at the Statehouse

We kicked off the session with hundreds of union members filling the Capitol rotunda for our annual Solidarity Day rally. IFPTE President Matthew Biggs, IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson, USW International Vice President Emil Ramirez, and CWA District 6 Campaign Lead Luke Pavone all came out. Governor Kelly addressed the crowd: "Kansas is stronger when workers are respected. Kansas thrives when labor has a seat at the table." The message to the legislature was clear: we're watching, and we're not going anywhere.

Prevailing Wage — Momentum Building

SB 297 would restore local government authority to set prevailing wage policies for public construction projects. This is the building trades' top priority in Kansas. On February 18, Senator Adam Thomas successfully amended SB 297's prevailing wage language onto SB 436 (a bill raising no-bid construction limits). The amendment passed 17-11 with 12 senators not voting. However, when the amended SB 436 came up for final action later that day, it failed 12-26 with all 40 senators present.

That stings. But here's what matters: we got a floor vote on prevailing wage for the first time in years, and 12 senators voted yes. That's more support than we've had in recent sessions. Senator Thomas and our allies in the Senate deserve credit for pushing this forward. With the bill failing to advance past turnaround it is nominally dead but we are looking for opportunities to advance it yet this session.

Electrician Licensing — Labor Turns a Bad Bill Into a Win

HB 2588 is the statewide Electrician Licensing Act, and it shows what happens when labor actually engages in the process. Kansas has no statewide electrician license right now — just a patchwork of city and county requirements. A statewide standard isn't a bad idea, but the original bill set the requirement at just 4,000 hours. The feds require 8,000. Every state around us requires 8,000. The IBEW apprenticeship is 8,000.

We testified against the 4,000-hour standard and worked directly with the bill's sponsors and the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee to fix it. The amended bill requires 8,000 hours, with real enforcement, grandfathering for experienced workers, and every IBEW apprenticeship graduate walks straight into licensure. It passed the House 113-29 on February 19 and moves to the Senate.

We showed up, we engaged, and we turned a bad bill into a good one.

Public Education Under Attack

The legislature is coming at public schools from every direction:

Vouchers: HB 2468, which expands private school tax credit scholarships, passed the House 70-49. An amendment requiring private schools to accept all students was killed. An amendment to delay expansion until special education is fully funded was ruled "not germane." An estimated $58 million has already been diverted from public schools through these tax credits.

Special Education: Kansas law requires 92% reimbursement for special education costs. Current funding sits at just 64.6%. A motion to increase it to 70% failed. Meanwhile, Senate Ways and Means approved a $114.6 million reduction to K-12 funding.

School Finance: The current school finance formula expires July 2027 with no replacement plan. Voucher expansion, property tax caps, and direct K-12 cuts are all moving at the same time. They're defunding public schools while writing checks to private ones. That's not a budget decision — it's a choice about whose kids matter.

The Kansas AFL-CIO is working with KNEA and AFT affiliates to oppose vouchers and fight for full funding.

Budget and State Employee Pay

Legislative leaders want to freeze state employee pay and cut positions. Governor Kelly proposed a 2.5% raise, but Senate Ways and Means passed a budget with zero funding for it — effectively continuing a 1.5% pay cut from last session. This goes to conference committee.

The staffing crisis tells the story. Larned State Hospital hired 153 employees last year and lost 139. Half the staff are contract workers. There's talk of letting state nurses pick up shifts at agency rates ($55/hr) and offering education incentives, but the real problem is simple: the state won't pay competitive wages for permanent positions. That hits AFSCME members and public sector workers across Kansas.

Aerospace and Aviation

Kansas is the air capital of the world, and IAM and SPEEA members are the reason why. Several things are moving in Topeka that matter for aerospace workers.

HB 2464 (Aviation Tax Credit Extension) extends income tax credits for graduates of aerospace and aviation education programs and the employers who hire them. The bill passed the House 81-39 on February 4 and has moved to the Senate. Some opposition came from members who object to tax credits on principle. Two explanations of vote complained about "padding mega-corporations' pockets" and giving credits to a "very profitable industry" instead of cutting taxes for everyone. They're not entirely wrong that employer-side credits can end up subsidizing companies that would hire anyway. But the graduate-side credits directly support workers entering the aerospace trades, and when other states are aggressively recruiting aerospace employers, walking away from these incentives unilaterally isn't a serious option. The question isn't whether to offer them, it's whether they come with accountability measures tied to real job creation.

Budget items to watch:

$15 million allocated in Senate Ways and Means for an aviation study to NIAR, Spirit, and Textron Aviation
$5 million recurring for Wichita State University's Aviation Research Account
$7 million annual funding for WSU/NIAR military MRO programs, projected to generate $2.5 billion in economic activity over the next decade
$34 million proposed for aerospace MRO in the SB 315 budget
$20 million in ALOFT grants already obligated to seven aviation/aerospace manufacturers for workforce training. These are worth supporting if they fund real apprenticeships and skill-building for workers, less so if they're reimbursing companies for training they'd do regardless.

Boeing/Spirit AeroSystems: The Boeing acquisition of Spirit creates a gap in the Tier 1 supply chain. There's active discussion at the Statehouse about state investment to help Kansas's Tier 2 and Tier 3 aerospace suppliers step up to fill it. That means potential job growth for Machinists members. One Vision Aviation in Salina is already expanding its maintenance operations.

The bad news: The Special Budget Committee cut $15 million in requests for energy and aerospace workforce development projects, including nuclear sector training and alternative energy/aerospace tech programs at KU and WSU. That's money that would have gone directly into training pipelines for our members. It's the kind of investment that's hardest to argue against and easiest for budget hawks to kill because it doesn't have a corporate lobby behind it.

The bottom line for aerospace: The tax credit extension passed the House with strong bipartisan support, budget investment in NIAR and aviation research is solid, and the Boeing/Spirit shakeup is creating new opportunities. But workforce development funding took a hit, and we need to make sure the Senate doesn't let HB 2464 stall. Labor's position on aerospace incentives should be clear-eyed: we support investment that creates and sustains good jobs, not blank checks for profitable companies. Every dollar should come with expectations.

Local Control and Preemption

The legislature is on a preemption spree — passing bills that strip cities and counties of authority over everything from tenant screening to security fences to short-term rentals. But the one that matters most is the property tax cap (SCR 1616), which would impose a 3% cap on local revenue growth. Cities would need a special election just to fund basic services like police, fire, and infrastructure. That's a direct threat to public employee compensation and local government's ability to function.

Voter Suppression

A stack of bills is moving to restrict voting access before the 2026 elections:

HB 2453 shortens registration deadlines and eliminates Monday early voting
HB 2491 cross-references voter rolls with immigration data
HB 2437 enables aggressive voter roll purges
HB 2503 restricts mail-in elections
SB 394 could eliminate mail-in voting entirely

Working people have less flexibility to vote during shrinking windows. They want fewer people voting. Period. We're opposing all of it.

Anti-Worker Legislation

HB 2602 (Independent Contractor Framework): Passed the House 77-8. Sets up a portable benefits framework for independent contractors that locks in contractor status for an estimated 220,000 workers. Sounds reasonable on the surface, but it pushes the gig economy model at the expense of traditional employment protections and union density.

SB 413 (Tort Reform): Caps non-economic damages for injured workers and plaintiffs. Passed the Senate. Protects corporations, not injured Kansans.

Good News

KPERS is 75% funded, and there's real talk about COLAs for retirees and a $500 million boost to address unfunded liabilities. Good news for every public sector worker in Kansas.

SB 324 (Construction Zone Safety) passed the Senate Transportation Committee, creating new penalties for phone use in work zones with workers present. A building trades priority.

HB 2364 (Non-Opioid Drug Coverage) was reported favorably. Prohibits cost-sharing for non-opioid pain treatments, which helps our members' healthcare costs.

The Chiefs stadium project could mean 20,000+ construction jobs with commitments to union labor. If it moves forward, it would be the largest public-private investment in state history and a massive opportunity for the building trades.