Gov. Jay Nixon didn't propose any raises this next year for Missouri government employees.
The House-passed budget doesn't add any money for state pay hikes, either.
"I'm not pleased with no state employee salary increases in the budget," said state Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City.
California native Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, added, "I think it's an absolute travesty that we didn't include state employee pay raises (in the budget). We have one of the lowest state employees' salaries in the entire country.
"How we run our state should be indicative of how our state employees are treated - and right now, I don't think they're treated fairly."
Senate Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, supports the idea of pay raises.
But he's not optimistic they can be included in the 2015-16 business year budget that goes into effect July 1.
Still, freshman Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, said, "Hopefully, there's something that can be done" as the Senate considers the budget.
And, Sen. Mike Kehoe - an Appropriations Committee member - said he and others are working on it.
"We've got our appropriations staff looking at where we can find something to do on that," Kehoe told the News Tribune. "Obviously, when the governor doesn't put it in, that really makes it a tough mountain to climb. ...
"But we're not going to give up."
State Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said, "I think we'd all like to find a way to give the state employees raises.
"Certainly, when the governor puts something in the budget, it's easier to keep it in there than it is to try to put something in there when he doesn't recommend it."
Lawmakers this year again added $300,000 to pay for a total compensation study - a line-item Nixon vetoed last year.
"I know we talk a lot about - or it's been referenced - that state employees are some of the lowest-paid in the country," Dempsey noted. "I just want to look at - if you include the pension benefits and other fringe (benefits) that our state employees have, where do we fall in that area, as well?
"We've got a pretty good health care package that our state employees have. We have a pretty good pension system (that is) reasonably funded when you look at other places in the country."
State Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City, chairs the Interim Committee on State Employee Wages that would commission that study, if the appropriation stays in the budget.
And Barnes and Kehoe both are members.
"I know a lot of state employees who say, "Forget the study. Just give us a pay raise,'" Kehoe said.
"What we need to understand is, there's a group of senators and House members - mainly the local, Central Missouri group you would think of - that understand what state employees do and understand and appreciate the job they do.
"But there's another universe of elected officials that, probably, don't quite understand it."
The compensation study would help area lawmakers show their colleagues how Missouri government's workers compare with their counterparts in other states - and in the private sector, Kehoe said, adding the last one was conducted in 1983.
A new study "certainly would give us that tool, that we could go to other members of the General Assembly and say, "OK, you've been hearing us talk about it - here's the facts, including their compensation and their base pay.
""Here's where we rank and here's where we need to get to,'" Kehoe said.
Jones agreed.
"A lot of times, you get reps from - not from Mid-Missouri, but from 100, 150, 200 miles away - that these aren't families in their districts," he said. "They don't see the direct effect on how a low state employee's wage hurts their district. And, quite frankly, I don't think they care."
Dempsey said he cares.
"I've always said, I want to see fewer state employees and working to create efficiencies to do that and still deliver good service," Dempsey explained, "but I want to treat the people that remain better.
"And we need to do better in that area."