Lawmakers restore Brownback’s proposed sweeps from KDOT to budget bill

Four days after a Kansas House panel voted to scale back the amount money swept from the state’s highway fund to fill the state’s budget hole the next two years, the same panel moved to restore Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget request to sweep $475 million from the Kansas Department of Transportation for the next two years.

The House budget subcommittee that oversees transportation and public safety funding voted last week to reduce the amount of money diverted from KDOT for 2016 and 2017 by $280 million from the amount Brownback requested in his budget.

Rep. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, the subcommittee’s chair, called a meeting at the House rail Monday to undo this action, which was pushed last week by moderate Republicans who say the state is avoiding dealing with the state’s revenue problems by using KDOT as a piggy bank.

Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, who made the motion to lessen the transfers last week, said he was not surprised that his amendment was undone. He said the intention of his motion last week was to start a discussion about fiscal responsibility.

Jennings said that KDOT has reached the cap on its bond authority and that the Legislature will be asked to increase that cap so the department can borrow more money to keep projects going. He compared this to paying off credit card debt with another credit card.

“We’ve used up all of the borrowing that’s available basically and we’re being asked essentially to use borrowed money to pay on debt,” Jennings said. “That’s like a credit card on a credit card.”

Rail meetings, which happen in the Capitol rotunda at the railing as opposed to a committee, room are briefer and less formal than a standard committee meeting. Claeys said the decision to hold a rail meeting was based on timing.

Claeys cast the deciding vote to undo last week’s action.

“It’s important that we bring all the parties together and come up with a solution that fits within the budget and this action – while I appreciate Rep. Jennings’ motion and the discussion it created – it’s simply too much too quickly too soon,” Claeys said. “We need to figure out where we are with the entirety of this budget.”

The transfers from KDOT go toward filling the state’s budget hole for next year, which stands close to $700 million. The Department has said all announced projects, such as the expansion on the Kellogg interchange, will continue on schedule, but some unannounced maintenance projects will be delayed.

Rep. Melissa Rooker, R-Fairway, a member of the committee, accused the administration of using fund transfers to avoid dealing with what she says is the real source of the state’s budget woes: a lack of tax revenue.

“We are kicking the can down the road. And avoid dealing with the actual core problem, which is lack of revenue to support our current level of spending,” Rooker said.

“For the purists who think we have a spending problem, time to start talking about where you would entertain cutting the budget,” she continued. “For the rest of us who think we really do have a revenue problem, we really need to get at that.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2015 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Lawmakers restore Brownback’s proposed sweeps from KDOT to budget bill."