Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal is retiring from office. The Hutchinson Republican announced his retirement Friday as legislators gathered for the legislature’s formal end. He was first elected in 1984.

O’Neal’s retirement leaves retired Reno County District Court Judge Steven Becker as the lone republican running for O’Neals seat in the 104th district during the August Primary. The House and Senate adjourned the regular session May 20.

O’Neal has taken several controversial actions, including passing a sweeping tax bill that the more moderate Senate had approved as a placeholder bill to open tax negotiations with the House.

He also blocked Senate-approved redistricting maps that would have favored moderate Republican Senate incumbents over potential conservative challengers. The action bucked decades of tradition of each house drawing its own districts and has thrown the 10-year reapportionment of the state into a federal court, where O’Neal appeared as both lawyer and witness in hearings earlier this week.

O’Neal urged colleagues to be serious about the state’s business, but “don’t take yourself too seriously.” He indicated he plans to be active in state affairs in some capacity.