The 2026 regular session ends Friday for Kansas lawmakers, and legislators have a new budget bill for Kansas Governor Laura Kelly to consider — although she has already said she does not like a key component of the package.
Lawmakers have set up a 1-percent, across-the-board increase for administration employees and staffers at Kansas Board of Regents universities.
This follows legislative action to bump salaries by 10 percent for professional staff. Lawmakers also received an automatic 4-percent pay raise earlier this year — prompting Governor Kelly to sharply criticize the lower raises proposed for the administration and university employees after she has been seeking a 2.5-percent raise. Kelly says the proposed raise amounts to “table scraps,” based on the other raises noted in state government.
There is some discussion among lawmakers to at least consider larger pay raises in future years, in part because some state employee salaries are 10 percent or more below market rates and in part to account for increases in gas and other prices.
Thursday and Friday could well be extremely busy for lawmakers because Friday is the last day to pass any bills for Governor Kelly to consider before the veto session begins April 9.
