Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ administration on Thursday defended its controversial pay-raise plan for some state employees and found an ally in a Republican legislative leader.

Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, who is often at odds with the Democratic governor, complimented Sebelius for issuing an executive order that goes around the civil service system to give raises to certain employees.

“She is trying to break out of a system that is antiquated,” Kerr said during a meeting of the Legislative Budget Committee.

But Andy Sanchez, a spokesman for the Kansas Assn. of Public Employees, told the committee the Sebelius executive order could backfire.

“This has the potential for a great deal of abuse and favoritism,” he said.

Jack Rickerson, director of the division of personnel services, said the “in-grade pay increases” were needed to recruit and retain top employees “by offering fair and logical salary enhancements.”

Currently, classified state employees receive raises through cost of living adjustments and step movement increases. Because of tight budgets in recent years, step increases have been suspended.

Rickerson said the new system would allow agencies greater flexibility in moving classified employees from one step to another step on the pay matrix.

But he pointed out several times that the increases could not be paid for job performance, but instead would be granted to employees for managing more complex and demanding responsibilities. KAPE has argued there is no distinction between the two ideas, and Kerr agreed, saying the new system sounded like the raises would be based on performance.

But Rickerson said an experiment in the 1980s to pay for performance based on a ratings system “was a complete failure” because supervisors felt pressured to give employees high ratings.