TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators on Thursday approved pay raises for state workers, setting aside money for school security upgrades and reversing past spending cuts on state university campuses.

But top Republicans also were pursuing income tax cuts that could endanger their ability to sustain the extra spending and an increase in funding for public schools approved last month in hopes of satisfying a Kansas Supreme Court mandate.

GOP leaders hoped the House and Senate would vote late Thursday or early Friday on income tax cuts worth $82 million during the next fiscal year. The bill is a response to changes in federal income tax laws late last year that would otherwise have some individuals and businesses paying more to the state.

Both the House and Senate approved a bill that would add millions of new dollars to the budgets approved by lawmakers last year for the state’s current fiscal year and the next fiscal year beginning in July. The current budget would top $16.3 billion, and the one for the next fiscal year would be nearly $16.8 billion in total spending.

The votes were 98-23 in the House and 26-14 in the Senate. The measure goes next GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer, who is all but certain to sign it but has the power to veto individual spending items.

The measure had bipartisan support because many legislators believed the extra spending addressed areas of state government that had been neglected in previous years. The state experienced persistent budget problems after lawmakers slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013, and legislators reversed most of the past cuts last year.

“I think we came up with a very good and fair budget,” said state Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, of Kansas City, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

Some conservative Republicans, particularly in the Senate, argued that the extra spending was too much.

“Where’s the fiscal conservative stances everyone talks about when they’re back home?” said Sen. Rob Olson, a conservative Olathe Republican. “They’re not in this budget.”

Even as the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the spending increases, its GOP leaders argued that the state should cut taxes because it is receiving an unanticipated “windfall” because of the federal tax changes.

Projections this week from the Legislature’s research staff suggested that the state can’t sustain all the new spending and cut taxes without causing budget shortfalls as early as next year. But the state’s economy has improved, and tax collections have exceeded expectations for 11 consecutive months, with a $66 million surplus in April alone.

The budget bill provides an additional $15 million to state universities to help them recover from cuts in their operation budgets in 2016. A majority of the cuts, but not all of them, would be restored.

State workers would get at least a 2.5 percent pay raise. Uniformed corrections officers and employees who did not get a raise last year would receive 5 percent.

The bill also includes $5 million for grants for security upgrades at public schools. It was part a safety plan House GOP leaders drafted following a deadly mass shooting in February at a Florida high school.

Legislators last month approved phasing in a $534 million increase in aid to the state’s 286 school districts over five years. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October that the state’s current education funding of more than $4 billion a year is not sufficient under the state constitution.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former suburban Kansas City teacher and swim coach has been charged with sex crime with seven youths.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the nine-count indictment was unsealed Wednesday after 53-year-old James Russell Green, of Blue Springs, Missouri, made his first appearance. He remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.

Green was formerly a teacher at Oak Park High School and several middle schools in the North Kansas City School District and at Blue Springs South High School. Green was also a head swimming coach in those school districts and at Hallbrook Country Club in Leawood, Kansas.

Court documents allege that Green produced images and videos of child pornography and engaged or attempted to engage in sexual encounters with several minor victims on numerous occasions over a 20-year period.

By STEPHEN KORANDA

Kansas lawmakers have approved new restrictions blocking teenagers and out-of-state candidates from future races for governor. The bill says starting next year, candidates must live in Kansas and be at least 25 years old.

The state’s lax laws have led to several teenagers, and residents of other states, joining the campaign for Kansas governor.

A wave of candidates even included a Hutchinson man attempting to enter his dog in the race.

Republican Rep. Keith Esau said young people can still take part in politics by running for local office or working on campaigns.

“There are lots of places to get involved in the political process without starting at the top,” Esau said. He’s chairman of the House Elections Committee and is running to become the Kansas secretary of state, which oversees state elections.

Esau said the changes will keep people off the ballot who aren’t serious candidates.

“It helps focus on the candidates who have a legitimate possibility of winning in the campaign,” Esau said.

Democratic Rep. Vic Miller blasted the bill for cutting young people out of gubernatorial races.

The bill is an “attempt to discriminate against young people who are interested in making our state a better place,” Miller said.

The legislation also touches on other parts of Kansas election law. It says any candidate for Kansas attorney general must be a licensed attorney.

That drew opposition from Republican Rep. Brenda Landwehr, who said non-lawyers with law enforcement experience, for instance, could be qualified to serve as attorney general.

“This will eliminate and omit a lot of potential good candidates with that law enforcement background,” Landwehr said.

The legislation also clarifies the rules for voting by mail. It says disabled people can still cast a ballot by mail if they’re unable to sign the envelope. About two dozen votes in Sedgwick County were thrown out last year because disabled voters were unable to sign their names.

The changes are now headed to Gov. Jeff Colyer, who can sign the bill into law or veto it.

Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda. 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri Legislature has passed a bill to legalize industrial hemp.

The measure to create a hemp-growing pilot program passed the House 133-6 Thursday. The Senate passed the bill 29-3 Wednesday.

Hemp, which can be used as raw material for manufacturing, comes from the same plant as marijuana. But it contains very low levels of the psychoactive chemical known as THC.

The bill would require people to get a permit from the Department of Agriculture to grow hemp.

Backers argue that growing industrial hemp could help farmers and businesses in the state. But it’s been met with skepticism for years by some lawmakers.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer shot and killed an armed man during a drug-arrest confrontation.

Police say the shooting occurred Wednesday evening during a narcotics investigation.

Police haven’t identified the man. But an attorney says the victim was Manuel Palacio. Attorney Tom Porto says he represented Palacio in an excessive force lawsuit against Kansas City, Missouri, police in 2014. Palacio won a $300,000 settlement in that case. Porto says he has been in contact with Palocio’s family since the shooting.

The officer who shot Palacio is a 21-year veteran of the department. He is on administrative leave, which is typical after fatal shootings.

Police Chief Terry Zeigler says no officers involved in the confrontation were injured.

MERIDEN, Kan. (AP) — Jefferson County authorities say a body found in a submerged car might be that of a woman who disappeared 2.5 years ago.

Sheriff Jeff Herrig says the body was found Wednesday inside a vehicle belonging to 70-year-old Joan Reber, a Meriden woman who was reported missing in September 2015. The car was pulled from a pond less than 1.5 miles from the VFW post where Reber was last seen.

A landowner noticed the corner of a vehicle sticking out of the pond and a dive team was called. The license plate number matched one belonging to Herrig.

Herrig says a positive identification hasn’t been made. But he added the discovery was going to be a relief for everyone involved in trying to find Reber.

KANSAS CITY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating the disappearance of a Kansas City woman.

On April 27, deputies were contacted by mushroom hunters who found possible human remains. Investigators responded to the area of South Mopac Road between East 235th and East 239th where they discovered a set of human remains in a wooded area, according to a media release.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner’s Office has positively identified the victim as Vernece A. Brown, 18, of Kansas City, Missouri.

Brown was last seen on February 14, 2018 in the 3600 block of Bales Avenue. Brown was reported as missing to the Kansas City Missouri Police Department and was an active missing person case.