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State officials seek public input on funding massive Kansas Water Plan

A second round of public input meetings are taking place in Kansas as state officials try to determine a path forward on funding the Kansas Water Plan.

Kansas Ag Secretary Mike Beam tells Brownfield years of drought have sped up conversations of water quality and availability.

“We knew it’s an issue, but as we get closer and closer to areas of the state that don’t have many years left, I think there’s more and more support for getting a plan in place,” he says.

Current funding is at $60 million annually, but a new proposal from the Kansas Water Office, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department of Agriculture would increase funding to $140 million annually over the next decade ($1.4 billion total). Beam says the concept includes $8 million from a proposed agriculture irrigation water use fee.

“There’s going to have to be at least some support from those areas of irrigation, particularly those in the High Plains Aquifer, before it’ll really advance,” he says.

But Kansas Farm Bureau Vice President Glenn Brunkow says additional fees are a non-starter.

“Ag irrigators already pay $5.5 million in fees and and this is an $8 million increase to that,” he says. “That does seem a bit excessive. In addition, the farm economy is just so depressed at this point, we’re already looking at losses before we ever plant. So we think that there needs to be a better solution than that,” he says.

Additional money would be raised through sales tax, bonding, severance tax increases and existing fees. The Kansas Water Plan was developed in 2022. Beam says Gov. Laura Kelly will determine later this fall a proposal to bring to the legislature in 2025.

Brownfield interviewed Beam and Brunkow at the consult meeting in Topeka. Additional meetings are planned next week in Newton, Salina, Pittsburg and Leavenworth, with the final meeting to take place on September 30 in Wichita.