Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas Senate Bill SB176

Introduced
2/4/25  

Caption

Amending the Kansas indoor clear air act to prohibit smoking on the gaming floor of a lottery gaming facility or racetrack gaming facility and amending the definition of smoking to include the use of an electronic cigarette and smoking marijuana.

Summary

SB 176 amends the Kansas Indoor Clear Air Act to expand the definition of “smoking” and to add a new prohibition on smoking on the gaming floor of a lottery gaming facility or racetrack gaming facility. Under the bill, “smoking” would explicitly include the use of an electronic cigarette and the burning of marijuana, in addition to traditional tobacco smoking. The bill also defines “gaming floor” and clarifies that the smoking ban would apply in that area of state-regulated gaming facilities. The measure revises the statutory definitions used in Kansas’s smoke-free workplace and public-place laws, including terms such as enclosed area, public place, place of employment, and related exemptions. It keeps most existing exemptions intact, such as certain tobacco shops, designated smoking areas in some long-term care settings, and limited private club or charitable cigar dinner exceptions, while removing the gaming-floor exemption by making that area smoke-free. The bill would amend and reenact K.S.A. 21-6109 and 21-6110 and repeal the current versions of those statutes.

Impact

If enacted, SB 176 would broaden Kansas’s indoor smoking restrictions by treating vaping and marijuana smoking the same as tobacco smoking for purposes of the Indoor Clear Air Act. It would also eliminate the existing exemption that allowed smoking on the gaming floor of lottery gaming facilities and racetrack gaming facilities, thereby extending smoke-free requirements to those areas. The bill would affect casino and racetrack gaming operators, employees, patrons, and enforcement of workplace and public-place smoking restrictions across the state.

Sentiment

No committee transcript or recorded vote information was provided, so there is no direct evidence of debate or formal support/opposition in the materials supplied. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears to be a public-health and workplace-safety update aimed at closing loopholes in Kansas’s smoke-free law. The overall framing suggests a regulatory tightening rather than a major policy overhaul.

Contention

The most likely point of contention is the removal of the smoking exemption for gaming floors, which would affect lottery gaming facilities and racetrack gaming facilities that may have relied on that carveout. Another possible area of dispute is the bill’s expansion of “smoking” to include electronic cigarettes and marijuana, which could raise concerns from vaping users, cannabis-related stakeholders, and businesses that currently permit those activities indoors. Supporters would likely emphasize cleaner indoor air and uniform enforcement, while opponents may focus on business impacts, personal choice, and the treatment of non-tobacco products.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS HB2002

Expanding medical assistance eligibility and enacting the cutting healthcare costs for all Kansans act.

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SCR1602

Approving the creation of a port authority in Wyandotte County Kansas.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS SB3

Clarifying the procedures and restrictions on accepting a nomination for an elected office.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

KS SB6

Providing a sales tax exemption for sales of electricity to residential premises by municipally owned or operated utilities.

Similar Bills

No similar bills found.