Home Rule

Dillon’s Rule vs. Home Rule

Arising in the late 19th Century, the issue of from where local units of government derived their power was debated and established in the ideological concepts of “Dillon’s Rule” and “Home Rule.”

Dillon’s Rule focuses on local units of government as being subdivisions of the State that are dependent upon the State to enumerate the structures and powers of the local government. It is named for the Iowa Supreme Court justice who described this concept; the U.S. Supreme Court has reiterated the idea.

Conversely, Home Rule views local governments as entities both dependent on and independent of the State. Thus, home rule states grant a certain amount of self-governing authority to local governments to act independently of state statute, unless doing so is outside of the home rule authority granted or otherwise governed by the State.

Kansas is generally considered a home rule state, although not all local units of government have home rule authority.

Home Rule in Kansas

Cities

Adopted by voters in the 1960 general election and taking effect July 1, 1961, Article 12, Section 5 of the Kansas Constitution authorizes cities to be “empowered to determine their local affairs and government” and states such powers must be “liberally construed for the purpose of giving to cities the largest measure of self-government.”
The amendment allows for cities to “determine their local affairs and government” and includes, in part, the following:

• Cities are empowered to determine their local affairs and government including the levying of taxes, excises, fees, charges, and other exactions;
• Cities shall exercise such determination by ordinance passed by the body with referendums only when prescribed by the Legislature; and
• A city may adopt a charter ordinance to exempt itself from an enactment of the Legislature unless such enactment was uniformly applicable to all cities or it prescribed limits of indebtedness.

This authority allows cities to adopt ordinances establishing their own policies for subjects not addressed by state statute. Additionally, cities may adopt ordinances that can supplement state statutes so long as the additional regulations do not conflict with state law and are not expressly prohibited by state statute.

Counties

Counties in the state received home rule authority in 1974, through an act of the Legislature rather than a constitutional amendment.

Statutes KSA 19-101 et seq. provide that “the board of county commissioners may transact all county business and perform all powers of local legislation and administration it deems appropriate . . .” with these powers being subject only to the limits, restrictions, and prohibitions established in the statutes. Statutory language states the home rule powers of counties are to be liberally construed to give them the largest measure of self government. However, more than 30 limits to those powers have been added to the home rule statutes, most recently in 2024.

Unified Governments

Unified governments merge county and city governments within a county. This has occurred twice in Kansas: Wyandotte County in 1997 and Greeley County in 2009. Statutes creating these unified governments specify Wyandotte County has the powers, functions, and duties of cities of the first class and Greeley County those of cities of the third class.

Local Boards of Education

Though school boards are not expressly given home rule authority, Article 6, Section 5 of the Kansas Constitution provides that local public schools shall be “maintained, developed, and operated by locally elected boards.”

These administrative powers were expanded by the 2003 Legislature so that local school boards “may transact all school district business and adopt policies the board deems appropriate to perform its constitutional duty to maintain, develop, and operate local public schools” by passing resolutions.

Townships and Special Districts

Dillon’s rule applies to Kansas townships and special districts, such as hospital districts; they have no home rule authority. Thus, any actions these types of entities wish to take outside of pre-existing authority require statutory change.