Missouri and Kansas Implement New State Laws for 2025

The month of September is always a time of change as students return to school and the weather begins to change. It also is the time in which many new laws passed by the Missouri Legislature and signed by the governor take effect. Although Kansas has a different schedule for implementing legislation, it also has a number of new laws on the books this year.

MISSOURI

The following laws officially went into effect on August 28:

• Capital gains tax repeal. House Bill 594 eliminates the state capital gains tax on assets such as stocks, real estate and cryptocurrency.
• Taxes on personal care products. HB 594 also removes local sales taxes on diapers, feminine hygiene products and incontinence products.
• Newborn safe-place fund. HB 121 creates the “Safe Place for Newborns Fund” to help pay for adoptions and other needs related to safe surrender of infants.
• Hazing protection. Senate Bill 160, also known as Danny’s Law, establishes protections against hazing for college students by clarifying the offense and providing limited immunity to those who report it.
• Expired temp vehicle tags. SB 28 does away with temporary tags and requires taxes to be paid at the time of licensing.
• Water export restrictions. SB 82 prevents the export of Missouri’s water outside the state without a permit from the Department of Natural Resources and restricts water withdrawal for export by pipeline.
• Digital estate planning. A new law allows for digital estate planning, simplifying the creation, signing and storage of important documents online.
• Homeschooler participation. SB 63 allows homeschooled students to participate in public school activities.
• Cellphone policies. SB 68 requires schools to adopt clear policies on cellphone bans.
• Hearing aids for low-income adults. HB 177 provides hearing aids and cochlear implants to low-income adults.
• First responder school tuition. HB 419 provides school tuition benefits for eligible first responders and their families.

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KANSAS

Most new laws in Kansas take effect on January 1, July 1 or on the day after the governor signs them. These are some of the more significant new laws enacted in 2025:

• Income tax cuts. SB 269 reduces individual and corporate income tax rates to as low as 4 percent, provided the state has surplus funds.

• Trans child surgeries/hormone ban. SB 63 prohibits health-care providers from performing sex-organ removal (including breasts and genitalia), or offering hormone or puberty blockers to children.
• Return to office. SB 256, the “Back to Work Act,” requires full-time state employees to perform their duties in their assigned office, facility or field locations, with exceptions granted by agency heads.
• Alcohol licensing. SBl15 allows the director of alcoholic beverage control to issue licenses to individuals convicted of a felony if the conviction was more than 10 years in the past.
• Nursing services regulation. SB 228 regulates supplemental nursing services agencies and health-care worker platforms under the Secretary for Aging and Disability Services.
• Emergency services. The “Slow Down, Move Over” law requires drivers on multilane roadways to slow down and move over to an adjacent lane when emergency vehicles are at the roadside.

–Dwight Widaman