Summary — HB 2028 (2025 session, Kansas)
Status
- Introduced Jan 23, 2025. Passed both chambers and enrolled; vetoed by the Governor April 4, 2025; veto sustained April 11, 2025. The bill did not become law.
Purpose / intent
- Restore and make permanent discounted combination hunting-and-fishing lifetime licenses for Kansas senior residents, expand and set fees for a permanent youth lifetime license program, limit nonresident pressure on public waterfowl hunting areas, adjust related fees, and require KDWP reporting on the effects of nonresident limits.
Key provisions
1. Resident senior lifetime pass
- Revives authority for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) to offer a resident senior combination hunting-and-fishing lifetime pass to Kansans age 65+, with the fee capped at not more than 1/8 of the general lifetime license fee.
- Effective date in committee language: January 1, 2025 (and noted in reports as effective upon publication in the Kansas Register in some drafts).
Kansas Kids lifetime combination license
- Raises maximum age eligible from 7 to 15 years.
- Establishes a single fee for all children ≤15 of $400 (Senate Committee of the Whole reduced an earlier $500 figure to $400).
- Removes the statutory sunset so the kids license is not set to expire.
Migratory waterfowl hunting restrictions and habitat-stamp fees (from SB 213, added to HB 2028)
- Prohibits nonresidents from hunting migratory waterfowl on KDWP-managed “department lands and waters” and specified federal reservoirs and national wildlife refuges except on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays during established waterfowl seasons.
- Defines “nonresident” as a person who has not been a bona fide Kansas resident for the immediately preceding 60 days (with limited exclusions for certain nonresident license holders).
- Carve-outs: walk-in hunting access areas, navigable rivers, and light‑goose conservation order season.
- Migratory waterfowl habitat stamp fee changes: resident stamp maximum $20; nonresident stamp maximum $100.
- The nonresident hunting restriction (and related subsections) would have been temporary—scheduled to expire July 1, 2028.
- KDWP required to report to House and Senate agriculture/natural resources committees (reports due Jan 31, 2026 and Jan 31, 2027) on impacts of the nonresident limits, including economic data.
Who is affected
- Kansas residents age 65+: potential access to a discounted lifetime combo license.
- Kansas youth (≤15): expanded eligibility for a lifetime combo license at the set fee.
- Nonresident hunters: restricted access to many public/federal waterfowl hunting lands on most weekdays; would face a higher maximum stamp fee (up to $100).
- KDWP: administrative responsibility to implement licenses, enforce restrictions, and produce required reports.
- KDWP funding and federal assistance: sale of licenses helps determine federal Pittman‑Robertson wildlife restoration allocations.
Fiscal and operational impacts
- KDWP indicated reinstating the discounted senior lifetime license would reduce state fee fund revenues by an unknown amount because seniors currently pay higher annual/license prices following the lapse of the earlier lifetime senior provision.
- KDWP could not estimate the net effect on federal Pittman‑Robertson funds (because license sales affect federal allocations).
- KDWP stated removing the sunset for the kids lifetime license would not have a fiscal effect.
- The bill required KDWP reporting and data collection related to migratory waterfowl impacts.
Procedural/timeline notes
- The migratory waterfowl nonresident restriction and related statutory subsections were drafted to sunset on July 1, 2028 (temporary trial period).
- Multiple committee amendments changed ages/fees and added migratory waterfowl provisions; committee reports, conference committee action, and votes are recorded in the legislative history.
- Final outcome: veto sustained; provisions did not take effect.
