Michael Johnston: State must stop draining funds from KDOT

The organizations and community groups that make up Economic Lifelines, the state’s leading transportation coalition, have watched with growing alarm the continued drain of transportation dollars to fill budget shortfalls. The most recent announcement of an additional $50 million slashed from transportation may well lead to projects not being completed and even less road maintenance. We urge Kansas legislators to reject this action and restore the vital funding.

The 2010 Legislature, with strong bipartisan support from all areas of our state, enacted T-WORKS, the state’s 10-year, $8 billion transportation plan, funded primarily by a 0.4-cent sales tax. T-WORKS was designed to deliver major new improvement projects throughout the state, including $8 million minimum investments in every county. Proper road maintenance was a key part of the program as well.

Since T-WORKS was enacted, nearly $1.4 billion has been transferred from the Kansas Department of Transportation to help pay for state general fund budget expenses. These continued diversions have already forced KDOT to “delay” lettings of $297 million for fiscal years 2015 and 2016.

Unfortunately, what was once thought to be a short-term fix to the state general fund budget problems may well turn into a long-term disaster for our state highways and our communities that depend on them. Indeed, KDOT itself has recently warned of the risks to the full completion of the T-WORKS program if these transfers from the highway fund continue.

For the past 30 years, our members have supported comprehensive transportation programs in Kansas because they understand that the economic growth and jobs generated by those programs are vital to the stability and growth of the Kansas economy. Kansas communities are counting on the T-WORKS promise to deliver 175,000 jobs and return more than $10 billion to the Kansas economy. Cuts that adversely affect economic growth opportunities for all Kansas businesses ultimately affect safety on our highways as well.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Michael Johnston: State must stop draining funds from KDOT."