And, maybe we’ll also find out what happened to those 21 delayed modernization and expansion projects for the state’s highway system that were believed to be good ideas 10 years ago in the now near-expiration T-WORKS 10-year highway program that legislators and administrators touted a decade ago.
Yes, we’ll find out this week when that “vision task force” puts together most of a new highway and transportation plan that it will present to the Legislature sometime in January.
Remember that the near-ended T-WORKS plan was presented as a way to not only make the state’s roads better, more convenient and safer, but as a demonstration that representatives and senators had genuine clout in the Legislature by getting road projects in their districts, or near their districts, that their constituents would like.
Nothing quite like standing next to the governor, the local Chamber of Commerce officials, mayors, county commissioners and others when that ribbon was cut to make driving easier and safer for your local voters. Not quite like crowning a beauty queen, but politically, close.
That old T-WORKS is nearly over, and of course nobody’s forgotten those promised and then not delivered road projects.
Reason, of course, was that the now mostly repealed Gov. Sam Brownback tax cut program reduced state revenues so sharply that the state had to withhold more than a billion dollars in funds for those projects from the Kansas Department of Transportation. The governor and his allies called it “sweeps” of those highway funds, we’re supposing because “sweeping” sounds so much better than robbery.
The delayed projects include about 96 miles of modernization, ranging from wider and safer shoulders to flattening out hills and straightening curves so you can not only see where you are going, but so you can see the vehicles coming from the other direction. Safety stuff. Oh, and about 35 miles are road expansions, including four-lane expressway construction, making intersections safer and adding frontage roads so there are fewer cars slowing ahead of you as they pull off to get to a quick stop or hamburger stand or such.
Those delayed projects? Pretty evenly split between western and eastern Kansas, either side of US-81, which is the east/west dividing line of the state.
This time around, besides catching up, or not catching up on the projects that weren’t done, we’re going to see just where new money is planned to be spent in the upcoming decade.
And that’s where the issue comes down to legislators’ clout on the House and Senate floors. House members in their first year of a new term: What a good time to show that their constituents elected someone with genuine muscle? And Senate members who will be on the ballot about the time that the new highway program is to start, they’ll be measured by constituents on what they were able to bring to their home districts. Whether it’s four lanes or upgraded two lanes, or maybe just an off-ramp near the city center. Lots of options here.
But the key is that everyone wants better roads, faster roads, smoother roads, and they want everyone else in the state to pay for them…somehow.
Could be a motor fuel tax, could be provisions that prohibit that “sweeping” of funds from KDOT if the economy goes south, or it could be a battle between lowering the sales tax on groceries or getting that new or at least smoother road.
We’ll get a hint of how this may come out by week’s end.
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com