Employees at Kansas University and other state agencies now have a national report to back up their requests for salary increases.

The report, issued this week, says better pay and benefits could help Kansas retain more of the workers on its payrolls. The state had 9.1 percent turnover among its classified employees in 2003, above the national average of 7.8 percent.

“Our salaries haven’t kept up with the outside market,” said Bev Nightingale, vice president of the Kansas University Classified Senate. “When you can make double the money outside the university, it’s not a good trade-off.”

The Government Performance Project report, funded by the Pew Charitable Trust in connection with Governing magazine, analyzes state governments in all 50 states in four specific areas: money, people, infrastructure and information.

Overall, the report gave Kansas a grade of “B,” better than the national average of “B-minus.” It gave Kansas a “B-plus” in managing money, and a “B-minus” for the other three categories.

Zach Patton, the reporter who wrote the section on Kansas, said the state was a “sound financial manager.” He said the state was well poised to deal with economic downturns because of its reliance on three revenue streams: 38 percent of tax collections in 2003 came from general sales taxes; 35 percent from individual income taxes; and the rest from selective sales taxes and licenses.

In contrast, he said, 90 percent of Oregon’s tax stream is from corporate and personal income tax.

“Kansas has a really well-diversified revenue structure,” Patton said. “They’re more able to adapt in changes in the financial picture than other states.”

The biggest area for improvement in the state, Patton said, is in retaining state employees.

Chris Shaw and Adam Peterson, classified workers at Kansas University, trim evergreen bushes near the Kansas Union. A new report sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust gives Kansas a B when it comes to the quality of government in the state, however, the study found high turnover among state employees. Shaw and Peterson, both employed by the state of Kansas, worked on Wednesday.

“State salaries have not been aligned with areas of greatest need,” the report concluded.

The state’s mental health trainees had 91 percent turnover last year, the report found.

Duane Goossen, the state budget director, said turnover among mental-health workers prompted Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to recommend an additional $2.5 million for workers’ salaries. That would result in approximately a 5 percent raise, he said.

The report also found the state pays 14 cents in benefits to state employees for every dollar spent on salaries, which is below the national average of 33 cents.

Government Performance Project: Kansas (.pdf)

KU officials have asked the Legislature to allow them to exempt their classified employees from the state’s civil service system, a change they say would let them increase salaries to be more competitive with the private sector. Patton said it was a strategy agencies in other states had found effective.

“A lot of other states have had success in their flexibility to hire, getting away from civil service requirements,” Patton said. “It’s definitely the direction states are moving.”