Lawmakers criticize a big pay raise for themselves before passing a big spending bill

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators approved on Friday another year’s worth of funding for most state agencies and services after a few lawmakers staged a last-minute public protest over a 93% pay increase for themselves coming next year.

The Republican-controlled Senate approved, 26-12, a bill with about $19 billion in spending for the state’s 2025 budget year, which begins July 1. It covers most of the spending outside of aid to the state’s public schools, which is in a separate measure that has stalled.

The Senate’s action came hours after the GOP-controlled House approved the bill, 78-44, so the measure goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. She’s likely to sign the bill, but the state constitution allows her to veto individual spending items, which she has done regularly in the past.

The bill would provide a 5% pay increase for all state government workers, plus larger increases for public safety workers and workers whose pay has lagged behind their counterparts in the private sector. But those increases are far short of the pay raise for lawmakers taking effect at the start of 2025 under a law enacted last year that didn’t require them to vote on the increase.

Critics of the pay raise managed to get the Senate to include in its version of the next state budget a provision delaying the pay raise at least another year. House and Senate negotiators didn’t include it in the final version of Friday’s spending bill, prompting opponents to complain about the gap between the 93% raise for lawmakers and the 5% raise for most state workers.

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