HB 2134 — Summary (Kansas, 2025)
Status & timeline
- Introduced: January 28, 2025 (House Committee on Judiciary, requested by Kansas Policy Institute)
- Passed, reengrossed: March 31, 2025
- Approved by Governor: April 8, 2025
- Effective date: July 1, 2025 (enrolled bill)
Purpose
- To revise the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) and Open Meetings Act by (1) limiting and clarifying fees public agencies may charge for furnishing records and staff time to process requests, (2) requiring itemized cost statements and a requester‑agency mitigation process, (3) adding or clarifying exemptions, and (4) making procedural changes to open meetings requirements (subordinate-group membership calculation and livestream accessibility).
Key provisions — Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-219, as amended)
- Fee limits for executive-branch records:
- Printed copies: capped at $0.25 per page.
- Electronic copies: no fee may be charged.
- Staff time charges: may be assessed only up to the lowest hourly rate of an employee reasonably qualified to perform the work; charges must be based on salary/hourly wage and may not include employee benefits.
- Actual cost definition: may include costs to review and redact records; incidental agency costs not attributable to producing the requested records may not be included.
- Itemized statement: upon request, agencies must provide an itemized statement of costs charged (including hourly rates for each employee involved and other fees).
- Mitigation / communication requirement:
- When estimated staff time to respond exceeds 5 hours or estimated staff-cost exceeds $200, the agency must make reasonable efforts to contact the requester and engage in interactive communication about reducing costs.
- If the agency contacts the requester via the requester's preferred method and the requester does not respond by the end of the third business day, the request is deemed withdrawn until the requester recontacts the agency.
- Appeals:
- Executive-branch KORA fee disputes may be appealed to the Secretary of Administration (final decision).
- Requesters for political/taxing subdivisions may appeal to the governing body of that subdivision (final decision).
- Executive-agency fee setting: agency heads must establish fees consistent with these rules.
- Remittance: fees collected by executive-branch agencies are remitted to the State Treasurer as provided by existing law.
Key provisions — other KORA changes (enrolled bill)
- New or clarified exemptions: records compiled during the course of formally closed investigations that found no violation, and records that contain obscene material, are exempt from disclosure.
- Reporting timeline: county and district attorneys’ required reports of violations of the open records and open meetings acts are to be filed with the Attorney General in October (moved from January).
Key provisions — Open Meetings Act
- Clarifies how membership is calculated for subordinate groups (affects quorum/membership counting for bodies created by a public body).
- Requires public bodies or agencies that livestream meetings to ensure the public is able to observe the livestream (accessibility/availability requirement).
Who is affected
- Requesters of public records (individuals, media, organizations) — lower or eliminated fees for electronic records; clearer process for appeals and cost mitigation.
- Executive-branch agencies — new limits on fees, requirements to provide itemized cost statements, to adopt agency fee schedules, and new procedures for requester contact; potential operational/fiscal impacts.
- Political/taxing subdivisions, legislative and judicial branch entities — retain existing fee-setting frameworks (legislative per K.S.A. 46-1207a; judicial per Supreme Court rules); political subdivisions subject to appeal to their governing bodies.
- County and district attorneys, Attorney General — changed reporting timing.
- Public bodies that livestream meetings and subordinate groups created by public bodies.
Fiscal impact (estimates from Division of the Budget / agencies)
- Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI): estimated need of $136,455 SGF (FY2026 & FY2027) for 2.00 FTE to handle increased review workload if electronic-copy fees are eliminated.
- Office of the Attorney General: estimated additional SGF expenditures of $385,972 (FY2026) and $405,271 (FY2027) for 3.00 FTE; potential litigation costs are uncertain; estimated revenue loss ~$3,000 per year.
- Several other state agencies indicated no significant fiscal effect.
Notes / context
- The bill emphasizes limiting recoverable costs to those directly attributable to producing requested records (including review/redaction) and seeks more transparency (itemized statements) and communication between requesters and agencies to reduce burdensome requests.
- Appeals for executive-branch fee disputes are centralized with the Secretary of Administration; appeals for local entities remain local.
- The bill pairs records‑law changes with Open Meetings Act clarifications and new exemptions, broadening its scope beyond fee rules alone.
