Kansas House panel passes bill to balance next state budget

J.G. Scott, left, the chief fiscal analyst for the Kansas Legislative Research Department, consults with Rep. Marc Rhoades, right, R-Newton, during a House Appropriations Committee debate on budget issues, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, at the Statehouse in Topeka.

? Kansas would give prison officers a pay raise, attempt to boost staffing at mental hospitals and grant lawmakers greater oversight of spending at the state’s largest university under a budget-balancing plan a legislative committee approved Thursday.

The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that makes dozens of changes in the state’s $16.1 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 to close a projected deficit of nearly $200 million. The measure goes next to the full House, which could debate it next week.

The Republican-dominated committee’s plan includes most of GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposals to close the gap by juggling funds and capturing unanticipated savings.

But the committee departed from the governor’s proposals by including $2.4 million for a 2.5 percent pay raise for uniformed corrections officers at state prisons, starting in the summer. The panel also added a total of $3 million to the current budgets of the state’s mental hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie to help them increase staffing and tackle other issues.

The proposals had bipartisan support.

Turnover among uniformed officers at state prisons has risen in recent years to nearly 30 percent, and some lawmakers view it as a public safety crisis. Officers’ starting pay is $13.61 an hour.

Meanwhile, a total of more than 350 positions are vacant at the two mental hospitals, according to the Department for Aging and Disability Services, or about 38 percent of the jobs. Osawatomie is about 45 minutes southwest of the Kansas City area; Larned is in western Kansas.

The extra $3 million also could help the state make up for lost federal funds. A survey critical of the Osawatomie hospital in November prompted the federal government to decertify it, costing the state between $500,000 and $1 million a month in federal funds.