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Session of 2026
HOUSE BILL No. 2699
By Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development
Requested by Jason Watkins on behalf of Sedgwick County
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AN ACT concerning legal publications; providing for official publications
on a county website for counties with a population of 100,000 or more;
amending K.S.A. 64-101 and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. K.S.A. 64-101 is hereby amended to read as follows: 64-
101. (a) The governing body of each city of the first class shall designate
by resolution a newspaper to be the official city newspaper. Once
designated, the newspaper shall be the official city newspaper until such
time as the governing body designates a different newspaper.
No legal notice, advertisement or publication of any kind required or
provided by any of the laws of the state of Kansas, to be published in a
newspaper shall have any force or effect unless the same is published in a
newspaper which:
(1) Is published at least weekly 50 times a year and has been so
published for at least one year prior to the publication of any official city
publication;
(2) is entered at the post office as periodical class mail matter;
(3) has general paid circulation on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
basis in the county in which the city is located and is not a trade, religious
or fraternal publication; and
(4) is published in the county in which the city publishing the official
publication is located. If there is no newspaper published in the county, the
newspaper shall be published in Kansas and shall have general paid
circulation in the county.
(b) (1) Except as permitted by paragraph (2), the board of county
commissioners of each county shall designate by resolution a newspaper to
be the official county newspaper. Once designated the newspaper shall be
the official county newspaper until such time as the board designates a
different newspaper. The newspaper selected for the official publications
of a county shall be a newspaper which:
(1)(A) Is published at least weekly 50 times each year and has been so
published for at least one year prior to the publication of any official
county publication;
(2)(B) is entered at the post office in the county of publication as
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periodical class mail matter, which county shall be located in Kansas;
(3)(C) has general paid circulation on a daily, weekly, monthly or
yearly basis in the county and is not a trade, religious or fraternal
publication; and
(4)(D) is published in the county publishing the official publication.
If there is no newspaper published in the county, the newspaper shall be
printed in Kansas and have general paid circulation in the county.
(2) As an alternative to the provisions of paragraph (1), the board of
county commissioners of any county with a population of 10,000 or more
may designate by resolution a website as the official county website. Any
website so designated shall:
(A) Be maintained by such county such that only content approved
for publication by such county shall be displayed on such website;
(B) be accessible to members of the public and not password
protected or behind a paywall;
(C) not charge any fees for members of the public to access the legal
notices, advertisements or publications that are posted on such website;
and
(D) document and display the publication date for each legal notice,
advertisement or publication made on the website.
(c) Whenever the board of education of a school district is required to
publish a legal notice, advertisement or other publication in a newspaper
having general circulation in the school district, such newspaper shall be
one which:
(1) Is published at least weekly 50 times each year and has been so
published for at least one year prior to the publication of any school
district publication;
(2) is entered at the post office in the school district of publication as
periodical class mail matter;
(3) has general paid circulation on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
basis in the school district and is not a trade, religious or fraternal
publication; and
(4) is published in the school district publishing the official
publication. If there is no newspaper published in the school district, the
newspaper shall be published in Kansas and shall have general paid
circulation in the school district.
(d) Nothing contained in this section shall invalidate the publication
in a newspaper which has resumed publication after having suspended
publication all or part of the time that the United States has been engaged
in war with any foreign nation and six months next following the cessation
of hostilities if such newspaper resumes publication in good faith under the
same ownership as it had when it suspended publication. Nothing in this
section shall invalidate the publication in a newspaper which has simply
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changed its name or moved its place of publication from one part of the
county to another part, or suspended publication on account of fire, flood,
strikes, shortages of materials or other unavoidable accidents for not to
exceed 10 weeks within the year last preceding the first publication of the
legal notice, advertisement or publication. All legal publications heretofore
made which otherwise would be valid, that have been made in a
newspaper which, on account of flood, fire, strikes, shortages of materials
or other unavoidable accident, has suspended publication for a period of
not exceeding 10 weeks, are hereby legalized.
Sec. 2. K.S.A. 64-101 is hereby repealed.
Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.
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