Print edition: 
TOPEKA — Joined by two former Republican governors who championed Kansas highway programs, Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson made a pitch Monday for more projects despite bleak state revenue.
Parkinson said that while Kansas is ranked tops in the nation for its road system by Reader's Digest, it won't take long for that 10,000-mile system to deteriorate.
"If we go more than one or two or three years with the current level of spending on our highway maintenance, our roads will start crumbling," Parkinson said. "We can't let that happen. I'm very committed to get a new transportation plan so we can maintain this ranking."
Reader's Digest ranked Kansas tops in the nation, factoring safety statistics, pavement and bridge conditions, and congestion. Kansas was followed by Wisconsin, Montana, New Mexico and Utah. The rankings are listed in the April issue, which goes on sale today.
The bottom five were Louisiana, Hawaii, California, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
Speaking with Parkinson were predecessors Mike Hayden, who passed a 10-year plan in 1989, and Bill Graves, who pushed through a second 10-year plan in 1999.
Hayden, now wildlife and parks secretary, and Graves said the magazine's ranking was a testament to the vision more than 20 years ago to improve what Hayden described as the "damned deplorable" condition of Kansas roads.
Hayden called a special legislative session in 1987 to address highways, but legislators made no progress then. Two years later, a plan passed that was credited with keeping the Kansas economy afloat during the economic declines of the early 1990s.
The plan focused on new highway construction, bridge replacement and modification of existing stretches of roads, particularly in urban areas around Wichita and the Kansas portion of the Kansas City metro area. Thousands of contractors were employed over the life of the program.
Hayden said supporters need the same resolve to pass another program to maintain the system that he called as important as education and social services.
"These roads aren't free and they aren't cheap," Hayden said.
Parkinson has proposed a sales tax increase to lay the foundation for another comprehensive transportation program. He wants to require increasing the sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar for three years, with the tax dropping to 0.2 cent thereafter and the funds dedicated to transportation projects.
"The Legislature initially responded pretty negatively to that," Parkinson said. "I think they have studied the budgets carefully and they've realized there aren't responsible areas that we can cut any more."
Kansas has been forced to raid transportation funding in the past year to finance other government programs. More than $250 million has been siphoned from maintenance projects, putting KDOT's annual upkeep budget at less than it was in 1989.
Graves, now president and CEO of the American Trucking Association trade group in Arlington, Va., had his own budget crisis in 2002 in the recession following the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, he thinks policymakers will get another multiyear program passed in Topeka.
"At some point, whether they like or not, you have talk about increasing taxes. Whether it's fuel taxes, sales. You can't have something for nothing," Graves said. "I think over time it'll get worked out."
