Legislative Programs

The City of Overland Park strongly opposes any alterations or limits to home rule authority and we support the full control and authority over those matters which are granted to municipalities by the Home Rule Amendment of the Kansas Constitution as approved by voters in 1960. 

The issue of maintaining local government revenues is a prime concern for the City of Overland Park, particularly given the budget challenges at both the city and state level. State transfers to local governments have significantly been reduced or eliminated over the last twenty years. The City of Overland Park calls on the Legislature to meet its fiscal responsibilities to cities by maintaining and restoring state funding to local governments. The City supports a balanced state budget that does not rely on reductions in funding for local government; more specifically, the state should honor its partnership with local governments via alcoholic liquor tax funds and motor fuels tax receipts. 

The City of Overland Park supports full funding of the State’s comprehensive transportation plan known as the Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program and vigorously opposes any movement to reallocate state transportation funding to cover state budget shortfalls, including but not limited to the dedicated sales tax intended to generate revenue to pay for projects. The City also encourages strategic selection of project funding that gives preference to projects which enhance economic development. 

The City of Overland Park opposes actions by the state to impose constitutional or statutory limits on the authority of local governments to establish appropriate levels of taxation.

Artificial taxing and spending constraints, whether constitutionally or statutorily imposed, will not add accountability to representative democracy. The City of Overland Park supports representative democracy and the authority of those representatives to set budgets, establish taxing levels, and determine spending limits.

The City of Overland Park opposes any restriction on the use of public monies to provide information and advocate on behalf of the City of Overland Park and its residents. Any reporting requirements should not increase the administrative burden on local governments.

The City of Overland Park supports the right for local units of government to make decisions at the local level regarding the carrying and sale of guns (open or concealed) in public buildings, public amenities and at public activities and events centered around children. The City also supports the ability of local governments to set policies regarding the carrying of weapons and firearms by their employees while they are engaged in the course of their employment. Absent any return to local control, the City supports concealed carry training to be required for any individual who desires to conceal a firearm on their person.

The City of Overland Park opposes any further effort to move elections to the fall of even numbered years. Additionally, the City opposes any effort to make local elections partisan.

The City of Overland Park supports the current state law that exempts local government and public construction projects from sales tax. State imposed tax on current government purchases and projects will have only one effect: increase local property taxes. Purchases have to be made and construction must occur; imposition of a sales tax would increase the local tax burden to cover those added costs. Only the State Government would benefit from this sales tax revenue and our residents would pay the bill through higher property taxes.

Additionally, the City opposes a sales tax levy on professional services.

The City of Overland Park supports comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that offers protections to every person in the State of Kansas.  We oppose discrimination of all groups of people.

The City supports legislation that would allow cities to redact discriminatory language from recorded plats and covenants without eliminating the original documents. Such legislation would empower local governments to remove vestiges of discrimination from property records.

The City of Overland Park supports achieving a fully funded public employee retirement system within a reasonable period of time. The system should accumulate sufficient assets during members’ working lifetimes to pay all promised benefits when members retire. Any new policy changes could have a negative impact on local government employee recruitment and retention, particularly in the competitive Johnson County area. Finally, the City opposes the use of any more pension fund bonds to close the unfunded liability gap in the system.

All levels of government should be subject to the same open meeting and open records requirements. State laws governing open records should balance the public’s right of access with the necessity of protecting the privacy of individual residents, the costs of producing requested records, and the ability of public agencies to conduct their essential business functions.

The City of Overland Park supports the use of asset forfeiture as an important component in reducing financial gains from criminal acts while providing civil due process. All assets forfeited, or the proceeds of the sale of the same should remain with the local government that seizes the property.

The City of Overland Park supports current state statutes that provide the potential use of economic development tools such as tax-increment financing projects, community improvement districts, and neighborhood revitalization programs to help redevelop declining and blighted areas in the community. Without the availability of these long-term financial tools certain neighborhoods and commercial centers may continue to decline, requiring additional services from the City, the County, local school districts, and the State.

Furthermore, the City supports legislation that streamlines and expedites the process for local governments to manage blight caused by abandoned or foreclosed properties.

The City of Overland Park supports the ability of local governments to make decisions about the location, placement, size, and appearance of poles, towers and other wireless facilities within the community and public rights-of-way. While working with the wireless industry to ensure high-quality wireless service, local governments should have the ability to require collocation, propagation maps and information on other available locations, in order to avoid the unnecessary proliferation of towers and to protect the public health, safety and welfare. Finally, subject to federal law, local governments should be able to establish preferences on the basis of zoning districts and type of property.

The City of Overland Park opposes any legislation that would restrict or repeal the current franchise authority for cities.

The City of Overland Park supports legislation that encourages and funds local sustainability efforts including but not limited to energy conservation, water conservation, renewable energy, healthy soil, good air quality, green infrastructure, and clean and active transportation. As such, the City supports legislation that protects and restores natural areas for their value to air quality, water quality, carbon sequestration, climate resilience, and human health and well being. The City also supports the development of a state energy plan that encourages energy efficient technologies, the development, procurement, and use of low-emitting and renewable energy sources, and supports incentives for residential and commercial customers to invest in energy efficient programs.

The City of Overland Park supports a fair and consistent approach to the appraisal of property values and further supports proven techniques to value commercial properties at their highest and best use Property valuation should be based on fair-market value as currently defined in Kansas statute.

The City opposes legislation that would artificially limit or otherwise alter property appraisals to be based on hypothetical lease valuations rather than the current use. The City favors adding language to current state law to clearly indicate that fair market value does not include a hypothetical lease fee. The City also opposes caps in property valuations and limitations on valuation methods that shift the property tax burden, benefiting one category of property to the detriment of all others, as unconstitutional and inequitable.

Mental health is a critical component of the public safety and health of the residents of Overland Park and the state of Kansas.  Access to quality mental health services and an increasing need for these services is a primary concern of the City.Given the increasingly complex and challenging needs of individuals and families within our communities as well as the prevalence of drugs, and other social problems, it is more important than ever that people have access to the alcohol and drug treatment services in coordination with mental health services embracing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) or medication-assisted recovery (MAR) as a pathway to recovery. Additionally, funding for prevention of substance use, misuse, and addiction has been disproportionate to prevention programs for these other chronic health conditions. The science for substance use prevention has clearly indicated its effectiveness and warrants a greater level of investment.

The City supports expanded state funding for these programs and facilities, and the ability to establish public/private partnerships to increase provision of an access to mental health services and facilities.

As evidenced by the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, the City supports additional resources for public health entities and recommends that any changes to the Kansas Emergency Management Act should consider the role of cities in responding to disasters or incidents.

The City of Overland Park supports legislation that provides local governments the ability to facilitate the safe use of bicycles and scooters on public streets.  Legislation passed during the 2019 legislative session, provides that “traffic regulations applicable to bicycles shall apply to electric assisted scooters,” the City believes that modifications to K.S.A. 8-1590(d) would improve safety for use of both bicycles and electric scooters in public streets and provide clarity for the purpose of both roadway planning and enforcement issues. 

The City of Overland Park supports Congress’ Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2023, to provide

significant investments in the nation’s transportation infrastructure, specifically highway, transit and safety programs, energy conservation and environmental resilience, and enhanced safety and mobility.

We support consistent federal funding and timely renewal of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, the nation’s next surface transportation act by Congress with increased support to critical regional infrastructure priorities.

We support the Federal Highway Administration’s Every Day Counts initiative to enhance roadway safety, integrate automation, reduce traffic congestion, and shorten project delivery processes in order to save time, money, and resources.

The City of Overland Park supports the continued funding of the federal transportation plan in a manner that ensures dependable and strategic investment in transportation infrastructure.

The City of Overland Park supports funding to local communities to improve mental health services. The City is also supportive of funding allocated to schools, in particular to prevent youth suicide. Finally, the City supports federal funding to support law enforcement programs, first responder programs, co-responder programs, community mental health centers and additional beds for in-patient care.

The City of Overland Park supports full funding of the CDBG program. CDBG should be maintained as a separate and distinct block grant program with direct funding to cities with populations greater than 50,000 and maximum flexibility and local autonomy in using grant funds.

The City of Overland Park supports the ability of public safety officials to access data from telecommunications carriers in times of emergencies to assist investigations.

The City of Overland Park supports legislation that maintains local control and allows cities to decide whether to adopt collective bargaining.

The City of Overland Park supports increased appropriation of flexible funding and supports spending decisions for local governments to address effective homeland security issues, as each City has unique security needs and emergency response networks.

The City of Overland Park supports federal legislation that supports accountability for unfunded regulatory mandates and grants-in-aid.

The City of Overland Park opposes any effort to preempt the historic and traditional land use and zoning authority of local jurisdictions. Preemption undermines the local government’s authority to protect public health, safety, and welfare as well as safeguard the environment and support the property values of all residents in a community.

The City of Overland Park supports the National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2017 that provides long term funding for the NFIP that also addresses updating existing floodplain maps.

The City of Overland Park supports the ability of local governments to make decisions about the location, placement, size, and appearance of poles, towers and other wireless facilities within the community and public rights-of-way. While working with the wireless industry to ensure high-quality wireless service, local governments should have the ability to require collocation, propagation maps and information on other available locations, in order to avoid the unnecessary proliferation of towers and to protect the public health, safety and welfare. Furthermore, the City of Overland Park supports local government’s ability to charge a fair and reasonable rate for the use of its public right-of-way and opposes the limitations of the FCC to reduce the scope and the amount of such fees. Finally, subject to federal law, local governments should be able to establish preferences on the basis of zoning districts and type of property.

The City of Overland Park supports federal comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that offers protections to every person in Kansas. We oppose discrimination of all groups of people.

The City of Overland Park supports legislation that encourages and funds local sustainability efforts including but not limited to: energy conservation, water conservation, renewable energy, healthy soil, good air quality, green infrastructure, and clean transportation.

The City supports a federal solution to immigration reform. Any immigration policy should not negatively impact local governments with additional law enforcement or administrative burdens. The City further supports Congress continuing assistance to under-served areas with large immigrant populations, who are attempting to remain in compliance with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will be important for local governments to support critical city services and the economic recovery. The City of Overland Park supports funding to municipal programs that enhance a better quality of life for all residents.