TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Staffing problems at Larned State Hospital are driving up costs and leading some lawmakers to consider moving its sexual predator treatment program to a new location.

House Minority Leader Tom Burroughs said Thursday that the Legislature needs to work on a “long-term, viable relocation” of the sexual predator program to an area that can support its workforce needs. The Kansas City Democrat declined to suggest a specific locale, saying any community potentially hosting it would need to be consulted first.

Kansas currently commits sex offenders deemed to be sexual predators to the hospital, and a state audit report released Tuesday said the facility is already understaffed and its rural location 100 miles west of Wichita does not have enough potential workers to serve the program’s increasing population.