AASHTO Journal, 23 January 2015
The Kansas Department of Transportation says it anticipates delaying $297 million in road and bridge projects for fiscal 2015 and 2016, due to spending cuts and fund transfers proposed in Gov. Sam Brownback’s just-released budget to cover a projected state funding shortfall.
In a Jan. 16 statement on how Brownback’s budget plan would affect infrastructure work in its 10-year “T-Works” plan, the agency said all of its projects that are “already scheduled for letting will be constructed under the budgets proposed by the governor today.”
But it said the revised budget for fiscal 2015, which ends June 30, would transfer another $55 million from highway to general funds on top of transfers KDOT had announced in December. Counting earlier legislatively approved transfers to the general fund or to other agencies, KDOT said its total transfers for fiscal 2015 would reach $421 million.
In addition, the governor’s budget recommends transferring $377 million for the 2016 fiscal year that starts July 1, and $378 million in fiscal 2017.
Under that scenario, KDOT projected that its contract lettings for fiscal $2015 will total $608 million, followed by $636 million in 2016 and $718 million in 2017.
“These numbers reflect a delay in lettings of $297 million total for fiscal years 2015 and 2016,” the statement said, adding that its planned lettings for 2017 would not change.
Transportation Secretary Mike King also said: “Future savings from lower-than-anticipated bids and other agency savings, combined with additional revenue sources, will go toward funding projects delayed to the latter years of the T-Works program.”
The budget proposal says KDOT projects that it “can maintain a commitment to construct all of the announced expansion projects and program preservation projects at a level that achieves the performance targets for road and bridge conditions.”
Brownback is also proposing hikes in taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to help close the budget deficit, and slowing down planned reductions in income taxes.
But the transfers from targeted transportation revenue have drawn criticism from the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper.
In an editorial written before Brownback’s budget showed he plans to further increase this year’s KDOT transfers to other budget lines, the Capital-Journal said while this is not the first governor to use KDOT funding for other financial needs, treating transportation “as a ‘rainy day’ fund is close to becoming a tradition in Kansas.”