NEWS      RELEASES

Transportation 2000 Report Stresses Need for Transportation Funding; Suggests Legislation Change

December 9, 2002 (02-152)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Contact: Marty Matthews, (785) 296-3585 

Transportation 2000 Report Stresses Need for Transportation Funding; Suggests Legislation Change

Governor Bill Graves received the report of the Transportation 2000 study group during a presentation in his office today. Study group chair Mary E. Turkington, former Executive Director of the Kansas Motor Carriers Association and chairman of the Kansas Turnpike Authority, presented the report to the Governor with many of the group’s members in attendance.

The Governor had reconvened the group in August, asking members to review the status, funding, and future of the state’s Comprehensive Transportation Program (CTP)and to seek public input on those issues. The group held public meetings on four consecutive weeks in October in Fort Scott, ,Overland Park, Dodge City, and Wichita. The meetings were attended by about 800 people and about 150 made presentations to the group.

In the words of the report, those meetings “showed that the citizens of Kansas overwhelmingly support the CTP, are opposed to any funding reductions in the CTP, are alarmed at how State Highway Fund dollars are being used to balance the state budget, and are demanding that the promises made when the CTP was passed in 1999 be kept.”

The report goes on to state that the support for transportation funding is as strong now as it was when the Transportation 2000 study group held its original meetings in 1998. (Governor Graves first convened the study group in 1998 to review the state’s transportation needs.As a direct result of those efforts, the CTP was enacted in 1999. )

The report contains two recommendations to the Governor:

1. It is evident from the recent hearings that the citizens of the state of Kansas continue to overwhelmingly support completion of the entire 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Program and strenuously oppose any reduction in funding, which would prevent the completion.

   The members of the Transportation 2000 study group therefore strongly voice their opposition to any further reduction in funding, which would cause the elimination of any promised highway project, or reductions in funding for any modes, or in the amounts of city/county revenue transfers.

   The study group further states that only at such time as such funding may become inadequate to meet all of the commitments of the program should the state consider options that would allow it to still meet every commitment of the 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Program.

2. The current sales tax demand transfer funding component of the 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Program should be replaced by a revenue transfer based on the percentage of sales tax collected from the sales of new and used motor vehicles.

   It has long been recognized that this portion of the sales tax should be considered user fees whose appropriate repository is the State Highway Fund. To accomplish this, Transportation 2000 endorses the suggested legislative remedy provided by Economic Lifelines at the Wichita public meeting and that is included as part of this report.

The full text of the report can be found on the internet at www.ksdot.org under Public Information. For printed copies, please write to Transportation 2000 Report, Bureau of Transportation Information, Kansas Department of Transportation, Dwight D. Eisenhower State Office Building, 700 SW Harrison, Topeka, Kansas, 66603-3754.

Transportation 2000 Members

Mary E. Turkington,Chairman
Chairman, Kansas Turnpike Authority

James M. Aubuchon
Vice President, Pittsburg State University

Steve Baccus
President, Kansas Farm Bureau

Virginia B. Beamer
Logan County Commissioner

Marcia Bernard
Transit Manager, Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Knasas

E. Dean Carlson (Ex-Officio)
Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation

Marlee Carpenter
Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Ann K. Charles
Publisher, Parsons Sun

Chris Cherches
Wichita City Manager

D. Ted Dankert
President, Dustrol, Inc., El Dorado

Jim M. DeHoff
Executive Director/Treasurer
Kansas AFL-CIO

Ed DeSoignie
Executive Director, Heavy Constructors Association of the Greater KC Area

Senator Les Donovan
Chairman, Senate Transportation and Tourism Committee

Senator Greta H. Goodwin
Member of Senate Transportation and Tourism Committee

Rep. Gary K. Hayzlett
Chairman, House Transportation Committee

Charles Johnson
President, Cessna Aircraft Company, Wichita

Steve Kelly
Kansas Dept. of Commerce and Housing

Don R. Landoll
CEO, Landoll Corp.; Marysville

Rep. Margaret Long
Ranking Minority Member House Transportation Committee

T. Nelson Mann
Greater Kansas City Transportation Committee

Carol Marinovich
Mayor/CEO, Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas

Ken I. Meier
Harvey County Commissioner

Kevin Mitchelson
Chairman, Kansas Highway Advisory Commission, Pittsburg

Ed O’Malley
Overland Park Chamber of Commerce

Timothy F. Rogers
Executive Director, Salina Airport Authority

Bill Sepic
President, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce

Orville (Butch) Spray
President, Venture Corp., Great Bend

Max Zimmerman
Owner, Zimmerman and Company Insurance, Liberal