Best official tool: Kansas Secretary of State business entity search
Portal: https://www.sos.ks.gov/eforms/BusinessEntity/Search.aspx
Search by Current Resident Agent Name (Kansas’s term for registered agent). Try variations:
- Duncan, R.E.
- Duncan, Robert
- Duncan, Tuck
- R.E. “Tuck” Duncan
- Duncan Law
Results show entity name, type (including not-for-profit corporation), status, registered office, and usually principal/mailing address. Click through each record for officers, formation date, and filings. The public search often caps at about 100 hits, so you may need a few name variants.
That is the cleanest way to see which Kansas entities list him (or his office) as the person/place that receives official mail and legal papers.
Other public lists
What is already easy to confirm
The same suite is publicly used as the address for more than just the law office:
- Duncan Law Office / R.E. “Tuck” Duncan, Attorney at Law LLC — 212 SW 8th Ave, Suite 202, Topeka, KS 66603.
- Kansas Public Transit Association (KPTA) — 501(c)(6). He has been Executive Director since 2006. The association lists 212 SW 8th Avenue, Suite 202 and a nearby phone (785-235-8825) with the same fax as the law office.
His site also lists nonprofit/tax-exempt work among practice areas. He is separately described as a principal in Capitol Connection Kansas LLC (government affairs). His son Spencer has also been tied to a Capitol Connection lobbying shop. That is association management + registered-agent work, which is common for Topeka counsel who form entities and run trade groups.
What the records do and do not prove
Using one law-office address as registered office and mail drop for multiple clients and associations is standard and legal. It does not, by itself, mean the groups are shells or that he is a “shill.” It does mean official SOS mail, service of process, and often association correspondence can go through that suite.
To see the actual count and names, run the resident-agent search on the SOS site and cross-check interesting hits on the AG charity list and IRS 990s. That is the perusable public trail.
There is no public Form 990 that lists a W-2 salary line for Tuck Duncan as KPTA executive director. What is public is how the job is structured and how the association is funded.
How he is paid (structure, not a published salary)
KPTA’s own FAQ says the executive director is “retained under contract by the Board” and works under an annually approved work plan and budget — not described as a regular staff employee.
That usually means:
- Payment goes to him, his law office, or a related firm as a management/professional-services contract, not a typical nonprofit paycheck.
- On a full Form 990 that arrangement often shows up as management fees / independent contractor, with the ED listed at $0 salary on the officer table (Missouri’s transit association does exactly that: ED $0 on Part VII, plus a six-figure management fee to another org, of which a slice was later identified as the ED’s pay).
An older association directory listed KPTA with staff count 0 and a budget under $50,000. That is consistent with a small shop that may file only a 990-N e-Postcard (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less) or a short 990-EZ. A 990-N does not disclose anyone’s pay.
So: he almost certainly gets paid, but it is not published as “Executive Director salary: $X.”
Where the money comes from
KPTA says:
- About one-third of the operating budget is membership dues
- About two-thirds is a KDOT grant (FTA sections 5311 and 5313(b) / state rural-transit technical assistance style funding)
That grant money is public transit program funding that flows through KDOT to support training, information, and association work for Kansas systems. Dues are the members’ share.
It is not a large national trade-group ED job. APTA’s CEO is in the high six/seven figures; state associations like this are typically a part of a lawyer/lobbyist’s book of business, not a $200k+ standalone salary.
What he gets besides cash
Even without a published salary, the role includes:
- Contract fee for running the association (admin, annual meeting/expo, bulletins, board support)
- Use of 212 SW 8th Ave, Suite 202 as KPTA’s official address
- A separate KPTA phone (785-235-8825) and the same fax as the law office
- Statehouse / agency access as the association’s paid voice
- Possible separate legal or government-relations billing if members or the association hire the law firm for that work (that would be on invoices, not the ED title)
How to see the actual dollars
- IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search — find KPTA’s EIN, then download every 990 / 990-EZ / 990-N.
irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations
- On a full 990, check Part VII (officers) and Part IX line 11 (management / legal / other fees) and the independent-contractor list.
- KDOT public-transit grant files and any KORA request for the KPTA contract and invoices (the 2/3 grant piece is the state-money trail).
- Kansas SOS entity record for the legal name of the association and any related LLC that might be the contractor.
Bottom line: Public sources do not show a large listed ED salary. They show a board contract to run a small 501(c)(6) whose budget is mostly KDOT grant + dues, operated out of his law office. The dollar amount is in that contract and (if they file more than a 990-N) in the fee lines of the 990 — not in a published “salary” column under his name.
