State Finance Council allocates $45,000 to cover costs of search for missing farmer
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas Legislative leadership unanimously voted to release $36.2 million to provide funding necessary to implement pay raises for state employees.
The 2025 Legislature authorized $40 million for compensation adjustments under the state pay plan, but the Kansas Department of Administration said not all of that money would be needed to comply with mandated raises. The State Finance Council, which includes the governor, voted to release enough to implement the salary changes in conjunction with the new fiscal year.
“There will be a little bit of money that will go back during the next budget cycle to the state general fund,” said Adam Proffitt, secretary of the Department of Administration and the state budget director.
Meanwhile, the bipartisan State Finance Council voted Friday without objection to allocate $45,000 to the Kansas Fire Marshal’s Office to compensate emergency responders taking part in the March search for Lynn Gregory, 82, in southeast Kansas.
Gregory had been driving a tractor attached to a trailer through a low-water crossing when the farm equipment was caught in a flash flood. He was swept downstream by the current.
Marshal Mark Engholm said Kansas Search and Rescue task forces were deployed over a 14-day period in the effort to recover Gregory’s body. An Oklahoma agency with cadaver dogs was deployed because search canines weren’t available from Kansas, he said.
“It was a very difficult search because of the water level in the area,” Engholm said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t find him.”
The state council likewise agreed to dedicate $425,000 to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to update a state database known as KEIMS or Kansas Environmental Information Management System.
Kate Gleeson, deputy director of environment at KDHE, said the online data system was designed to improve internal accessibility of regulatory records tied as well as broaden public access to the agency.