TOPEKA — Leaders of the state court system say a decision by the 2026 Kansas Legislature to deny salary increases to all 2,000 employees in the judicial branch will exacerbate hiring and retention challenges.
While justices, judges and court personnel in Kansas received nothing to help cope with inflation in the fiscal year starting July 1, all 165 members of the Legislature received an automatic 4.4% raise after their compensation was nearly doubled two years ago. The Legislature authorized 10% salary increases for some of their legislative branch employees.
At conclusion the annual session, House and Senate negotiators also produced a bill with 1% across-the-board pay raises for executive branch employees. Judicial branch workers got nothing.
Kurtis Loy, chief judge of the 11th judicial district covering Crawford, Cherokee and Labette counties, said there were bound to be hard feelings about the Legislature excluding the judicial branch from compensation increases. He said the judicial branch received nice raises a few years ago, but a drift toward uncompetitive courthouse salaries meant quality employees would leave for the private sector.
“It’s not good for retention,” Loy said. “I would love to see them give our staff more money, because that’s the bread and butter of our operation — our backbone. Like sergeants in the Army.”
Gov. Laura Kelly, the Democrat nearing completion of her second term, recommended the 2026 Legislature appropriate enough to grant state employees a 2.5% salary increase. She vetoed the entire legislative branch’s budget to protest large raises for House and Senate members and the modest 1% deal for the executive branch. However, the Legislature voted to override her veto.
Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Derby Republican, said it was hypocritical for the governor to criticize raises for legislators without acknowledging previous wage hikes for judicial or executive branch employees.
Eric Rosen, the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, said he hadn’t anticipated the Legislature would exclude the judicial branch from the package delivering executive branch workers the 1% raise. It would be important for the judicial branch to stay competitive on salaries with market rates, he said.
“I think a lot of people missed it,” Rosen said. “We are looking and working toward trying to keep what we’ve worked so hard to maintain, and that was we’ve made great advances in our salaries.”
Kansas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sarah Warner said rising consumer costs made it difficult for Kansans to keep pace economically. Lack of raise for judicial branch workers in the upcoming fiscal year meant the earning power of those state employees would erode, she said.
“I think we’re all under an economic crunch right now,” Warner said. “When we aren’t able to give enhancements, then that means that it just makes it all the more difficult. And, these are people who have dedicated their lives to serving Kansans.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, and Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, didn’t respond to a request for comment about salary adjustment distinctions among the three branches of government. Masterson is running for governor, while Hawkins is campaigning for state insurance commissioner.
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat also running for insurance commissioner, said the only branch of state government receiving a pay increase that had a chance of keeping pace with inflation was the legislative branch.
“As the cost of living continues to rise and Kansas families struggle to make ends meet, it is disappointing that my Republican colleagues refused to fund pay increases for the hardworking Kansans working in the state’s judicial branch,” Sykes said. “The agency requested a 2.5% budget increase to raise employee salaries — an increase that doesn’t even keep up with the nearly 4% inflation that we’re seeing today — and the Republican supermajority refused.”
Sykes said Republicans in the Legislature found the money to give themselves a 4% pay raise, but left the Kansans serving judicial and executive branches “with crumbs.”
Rep. Henry Helgerson, D-Wichita, said a more transparent process of deliberation on state employee salaries might have led to a different result. He said the budget was micromanaged by a small number of House and Senate Republicans who often worked behind closed doors to decide key issues, which left some lawmakers in the dark about ramifications of those budget details.
“It doesn’t do what the majority of legislators want. The majority wouldn’t have penalized judicial employees,” he said.
This story previously appeared in the Kansas Reflector.
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