Kansas advances more than $50 million for COVID testing, state worker salary raises
A Kansas committee advanced a plan to spend $27.1 million in continued COVID-19 testing dollars as cases rise and fears mount of a winter surge.
The Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas executive committee, which allocates Kansas’ federal COVID-19 relief dollars, recommended funding the testing program through March 31.
The move continues state contracts with private labs to provide testing for employers and state funding for some community based COVID-19 testing programs.
The day before, the State Finance Council had approved $14.9 million to extend the program through the end of the year. The council, which is composed of many of the same members as the SPARK committee, will also need to approve the $27.1 million allocation.
Kansas is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse those funds.
The council also approved $30 million in bonuses and additional pay increases for workers at state hospitals, prisons and veterans affairs hospitals. Gov. Laura Kelly announced a plan for increases last month.
Her administration initially said the base pay increases could be paid for with existing agency dollars. While requesting funds on Friday, Kelly’s budget director Adam Proffitt said the pay increase had already taken effect and was being funded with existing agency dollars. Federal dollars, he said, were needed as “backup” and to fund additional temporary pay increases and $3,500 bonuses for salaried workers.
Without federal dollars, Proffitt said, agencies may be unable to continue funding the base pay increases.
“We need to find a way to backfill that money,” he said.
Kansas prisons and state hospitals, which have historically been understaffed, have experienced severe worker shortages in recent months. Even with raises, Proffitt said, state employees will be making below what they could earn in the private sector.
“These are facilities that truly need close to full employment to do what they do,” Proffitt said.
The proposal was approved by legislative GOP leadership and business leaders on the committee, but with reservations.
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said the issue would ultimately need to be resolved in the Legislature as a piece of the state’s ongoing struggle that came before and would continue past the pandemic.
If the raises continue past the 2022 budget year, they’ll need to be approved by the Legislature or gain additional allocations of federal dollars.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, an Olathe Republican, called the increases a “Band-Aid” to the state’s challenges competing with the private sector for workforce needs. The state, he said, needed to find a way to “do more with less” in the state’s prison and mental health needs.
“We have to continue to look long term so we’re not just continuing this problem,” Ryckman said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Kansas advances more than $50 million for COVID testing, state worker salary raises."
