Despite Kansas’ budget struggles, Kansas lawmakers are right to pursue a modest pay raise for state employees.

On Monday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to put a 2 percent pay increase for state employees in its proposed budget for the 2018 fiscal year that begins July 1. Such a pay increase will cost the state $20 million, no small amount given that lawmakers are already trying to close a $280 million gap in this year’s budget that will grow to $1 billion by June 30, 2018, the end of the 2018 fiscal year.

But considering that most state employees have not received an increase in nearly a decade, the raise is long overdue.

The Senate and House Ways and Means Committees are expected to finalize a budget bill to advance to legislators this week.

The Associated Press reported that most government employees haven’t seen a pay increase since 2008, as the state has battled budget woes driven first by the Great Recession and later by a series of tax cuts implemented in 2012 and 2013 by GOP lawmakers.

The Senate committee’s pay raises would cover nearly all state employees including state courts employees, state university employees and faculty, and state elected officials, including legislators themselves. Kansas Highway Patrol troopers, who last year received a pay increase funded by an increase in vehicle registration fees, are excluded from the proposed pay increase.

Gov. Sam Brownback, who has already vetoed a tax bill this year, could be a problem for any budget bill that includes a pay increase. The governor did not propose a raise for state employees in his proposal, and Shawn Sullivan, the governor’s budget director, responded to the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s budget proposal by telling the AP, “they are spending money we don’t have.”

But the state will have the money if lawmakers properly revise the state’s tax policies, which a majority of lawmakers already voted to do in the bill Brownback vetoed.

The Legislature is in the midst of a comprehensive budget overhaul that includes spending cuts, tax reform and finding a way to comply with a court order to adequately fund the state’s public schools. It would be shortsighted not to address state employee pay in such a bill.