State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Kansas lawmakers advance 2 percent pay increase for most state workers

Topeka Kansas Journal: Kansas legislators advanced a proposal Monday to give most state employees a 2 percent pay raise, even as lawmakers wrestle with serious budget problems likely to prompt a big tax increase.

The state Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to include the pay increase in its proposed state budget for the fiscal year beginning in July and the spending blueprint for the fiscal year that begins in July 2018. The cost would be about $20 million each year.

The proposed raises had bipartisan support. Most government employees haven’t seen a pay increase since 2008, a legacy of budget problems arising after the Great Recession and after GOP legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013.

Read article