Topeka ? Two Democrats in the Kansas Senate want to raise the salaries of state workers who earn less than private-sector employees with similar jobs.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley and Sen. Laura Kelly, both from Topeka, have proposed that the state complete a five-year plan to boost the pay of such workers. The state funded the first three years of the pay plan but stopped with the current budget.

The cost in state tax dollars would be $17 million over two years, beginning July 1. Hensley and Kelly contend the state could fund the plan with half of its savings from an early retirement program started last year by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Kelly is the ranking Democrat on the budget-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee.