Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's budget proposal includes a 1.5 percent raise for classified state employees. But today (MON), a Senate committee cut that raise out of its version of the budget, at least temporarily. Senator Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, says the pay raise would affect more employees than originally thought.
Denning says they’re not scrapping the idea of state employee raises, but right now the proposal needs more study. He says they need to determine the exact cost of the raise. Some state employees have not received a raise for several years.
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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's budget plan includes a 1.5 percent raise for classified state employees. But a Senate committee has cut that raise out of its version of the budget bill, at least for now. KPR’s Stephen Koranda reports.
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The governor’s budget plan says the raise for classified employees would cost about $5 million. But when members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee started looking into it, they found it might cost more than they originally thought because it might affect more employees than they first expected. Senator Jim Denning is a Republican from Overland Park.
“Yeah, I think there’s more to it than just the $5.1 million when we start putting all the pieces together. So, we just need to do our homework to make sure that we do it right,” says Denning.
Denning says they’re not completely scrapping the idea of giving at least some state employees a raise, but they need to determine the exact cost and who would be affected. Some state employees have not received a raise for several years.