A Kansas agency and a University of Kansas center for mental health research are cutting ties.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports (http://j.mp/299xIx1) the Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation at the University of Kansas declined to accept a contract offer Thursday from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.

The center says the contract would have cut the center’s budget by 50 percent and given KDADS greater control over how staff performed their jobs. The contract also would move to an hourly payment rate.

KDADS says the center rejected three offers to extend the contract, including an offer that would have kept its current contract totaling more than $1 million in place through June 2017. KDADS also says the hourly billing rate was intended to ensure accountability.

—
Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com.