Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson joined with two of his Republican predecessors last week to urge Kansas legislators to provide more money for transportation programs.
The state has cut highway maintenance efforts by more than $250 million over the past 12 months due to a sharp decline in revenue. Kansas is on track to spend less on annual road upkeep in fiscal 2010 than it did in 1989.
“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.”
He was joined by former GOP governors Mark Hayden and Bill Graves, both of whom developed 10-year highway upgrade programs during their tenures. The last state road plan expired in 2009.
Hayden said highways should be a priority budget item, along with public education and social services.
“These roads aren’t free and they aren’t cheap,” he said.
Lawmakers must work together to prepare another long-range plan, Graves said. He was confident that a new plan would be proposed.
“At some point, whether they like it or not, you have to talk about increasing taxes,” Graves said. “You can’t have something for nothing. I think over time it’ll get worked out.”
Parkinson has proposed an increase in the sales tax to finance highway projects, but the Legislature has been cool to his plan.
The governor wants to increase the sales tax by another 1% for three years, with the revenue dedicated to transportation efforts. At the end of three years, the 1% tax increase would be reduced to 0.2%.
“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.”
