KBI seeks recurring operating funds, staffing steps and an equipment replacement fund

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation requested three separate enhancements for FY27 at its appropriations hearing: $885,545 for annual operating costs at the Pittsburgh Consolidated Regional Law Enforcement Center, $750,000 to start a forensic equipment rehab and replacement fund, and $229,386 to fund step increases under the statutory career progression plan for agents and forensic scientists.

Tony Mativi, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told the committee the Pittsburgh center will be a multi-agency hub housing KBI zone offices, campus police, the highway patrol, Attorney General task-force staff and a small laboratory. "It's a collaborative venture that I truly believe is going to have a generational impact on that part of the state," Mativi said, while acknowledging the operating request would recur in future budgets.

Mativi also flagged an aging inventory of laboratory instruments: "There is over $13,000,000 worth of equipment that has reached that point in its useful life," he said, arguing the agency prefers predictable annual contributions (the proposed $750,000) to a replacement fund over future large, one-time requests that would strain the budget.

Why it matters: The KBI handles forensic services for most of the state and has new operational costs tied to recent program additions (child victim units and a fentanyl task force) and the opening of the Pittsburgh facility. Aging, specialized instruments in forensic labs affect turnaround times for evidence processing; Mativi warned that several concurrent failures could create backlogs without planned replacement funding.

Budget and staffing context: KLRD analyst Kyle Anderson told members the KBI’s FY26 revised estimate is about $62.3 million and FY27 is projected at $62.6 million. Anderson outlined capital requests to replace gas chromatograph mass spectrometers, a comparison microscope for firearms, and a crime-scene truck, and he noted vehicle replacement policy (150,000 miles) and one vehicle loss to a deer collision. The KBI requested $229,386 for pay-step increases that would cover 36 special-agent steps and 19 forensic-scientist steps as part of a statutory plan; that request remained in the bill as a statutory pay exception after the State Budget Committee removed other reappropriations and enhancements from the agency's request.

Recruitment and retention: Mativi described recruitment and retention differences by position: agents are hired with years of prior law-enforcement experience and trained through an 11-week KBI academy and field training; forensic scientists cost roughly two years and about $250,000 apiece to train, and the agency regularly loses trained scientists to higher-paying private-sector positions.

Requests and next steps: The three enhancement requests were presented to the committee; KLRD materials indicate the SBC removed some reappropriations and enhancements earlier in the process but left the statutory career progression plan intact. No committee vote was recorded in the hearing; members asked for further detail on recurring operating costs and transparency around fund management for any replacement fund.

Representative questions focused on recurrence of operating costs, the mechanics of establishing and using a replacement fund, the training cost per scientist, and whether equipment replacement proposals are already reflected in the FY27 base budget. Mativi said some end-of-life replacements already appear in the base budget, but the replacement fund is intended to build predictable capacity to avoid future large supplemental requests.

The KBI presentation closed with committee appreciation for agency work and questions about information systems projects and cold-case capacity; the hearing then adjourned.