MD PoliBlog

Region $10.8 billion short of meeting transportation needs

Region $10.8 billion short of meeting transportation needs:

 The Kansas City area has $21.5 billion in transportaton needs during the next 30 years and is about $10 billion short of picking up the tab.

The numbers were assembled by regional planners at the Mid-America Regional Council, which is putting together new 30-year transportation plan through 2040.

 The plan is more than just an academic exercise. Its part of a federal planning requirement that lays the groundwork for what might eventually get funded as federal dollars come into the region.

Planners estimated that the regions top transportation priority -- maintenance and upkeep of what we have -- will cost $12.6 billion  over the next 30 years.

In terms of projects -- your I-70s, your K-10s,   your bus rapid transit lines and your bike trails -- the regions needs total $19.2 billion, including 170 projects in Kansas and 226 in Missouri.

read more

(Via KansasCity.com Prime Buzz - Today's political intelligence and insight.)

South Johnson County Road Binge Would Overwhelm Blue River Watershed ...

South Johnson County Road Binge Would Overwhelm Blue River Watershed ...: "

KCTribune.com

A five-county study of the Kansas City metro area in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Transportation projects a need for some sort of east-west connector.
See all stories on this topic "

(Via user/05052837158869224534/state/com.google/alerts/9940136252291779396.)

Cities lose in stimulus highway spending

Cities lose in stimulus highway spending:

It isn't just Missouri, and it isnt just Kansas City.

The New York Times says highway stimulus money, passed out by the states, is going disproportionately to rural areas.

(Via KansasCity.com Prime Buzz - Today's political intelligence and insight.)

Southwest Kansas towns need to make alliances

The state's next comprehensive transportation plan will probably be smaller than previous plans, and politics will likely play a larger role in its passage, the lobbyist for the Southwest Kansas Coalition said Monday. That's why the coalition should start lining up allies across the state now, before discussions about the next plan begin, Robin Jennison told the coalition.

KDOT to seek passenger rail funding

The Kansas Department of Transportation announced today it plans to apply for $10 million from federal funding sources to make rail safety and track improvements between Newton and the Kansas-Oklahoma border for the possible expansion of Amtrak service into this area. "We think we can do that," KDOT spokesman Ron Kaufman said this morning. "Those kinds of improvements are needed if we get expanded passenger rail in the state." Kaufman said that KDOT is trying to get a head start in reestablishing Amtrak service between Oklahoma City and Kansas City, pending the outcome of an Amtrak study that is expected to be completed this year. North-south Amtrak service through Arkansas City was discontinued in 1979. Last month, the Kansas Senate passed a resolution asking KDOT to apply for federal stimulus money available for intercity passenger rail programs.

Kansas Senate passes final budget vote; House vote this afternoon

Kansas Senate passes final budget vote; House vote this afternoon:

TOPEKA – The Kansas Senate approved a compromise $13.4 billion budget Tuesday that eliminates the state’s projected $680 million deficit. 

The fiscal year 2010 budget, which begins July 1, includes minimal cuts to public schools - amounting to less than a 1 percent reduction.

The Senate endorsed the legislation, HB 2354, 35-5.

The bill was negotiated by the Senate and House, which expects to take a vote today that will send it to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for a signature.

read more

(Via KansasCity.com Prime Buzz - Today's political intelligence and insight.)

For KDOT, budget road will be bumpy

Federal funding shortfalls and state budget woes may strip the Kansas Department of Transportation of an estimated $265 million at a time when construction costs continue to rise, says the agency's annual report. "In a word, KDOT's fiscal outlook is best described as uncertain," stated the document, which was released Tuesday. "Over the next two years, KDOT and the state will continue to feel the impact of the national recession." Decreasing motor fuel tax collections and a falloff in tax revenue from heavy truck sales would reduce federal funding to the state by $155 million in fiscal years 2010 and 2011. That money comes from the federal Highway Trust Fund, which was on the verge of running empty until Congress passed an emergency $8 billion infusion into the money pool. Still, officials expect that fund to run dry by fiscal year 2010. Changes to transfers in and out of the state highway fund also are going to deplete money for Kansas road projects, the report states. KDOT expects scheduled loan repayments from the state general fund to the state highway fund to be delayed, removing an additional $62 million this fiscal year and next. Also, officials expect transfers out of KDOT into the Kansas Highway Patrol, which were scheduled to stop this year, to continue through fiscal year 2011, further depleting KDOT by $70 million. All of this comes as construction costs continued on an incline. When the state's current 10-year highway plan was passed in 1999, analysts predicted 4.5 percent inflation. From 2004 to 2008, however, costs increased by an average of 10 percent per year, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. A project that would have cost $100 million in 2004 instead cost $160 million in 2008. The recently passed federal stimulus bill did include $380 million for KDOT, but Tuesday's report said that chunk was just a stopgap. "The state's long-term needs cannot be addressed without new, funded transportation programs at both the state and federal levels," the report concludes.

Stimulus spurs Sebelius to rewrite budget

Stimulus spurs Sebelius to rewrite budget:

Recently enacted federal stimulus legislation has prompted Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to rewrite her proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Sebelius told reporters Wednesday that she'll have a revised spending plan for legislators by the end of the week. She said she expects stimulus funds to lessen the state's problems, but added, 'We are still in enormously difficult times.'

The state expects to receive $1.7 billion in stimulus funds in 2009 and 2010. State officials are developing rules for spending the money, but Sebelius has said $440 million in additional Medicaid funds and some education dollars could help the state avoid a budget deficit in fiscal 2010.

Kansas received its first installment of stimulus dollars Wednesday: $71.5 million in additional Medicaid funds.

Unlike governors in Missouri and some other states, Sebelius didn't include any stimulus dollars in the proposed 2010 budget she submitted to legislators last month.

(Via Kansas.com: State Government.)

Bill would abolish KS Turnpike Authority

The Kansas Turnpike Authority would be abolished and its powers and functions shifted to the state Department of Transportation under a bill before the Legislature.

Rep. Bill Feuerborn of Garnett says he’s proposing the change as a way to deal with the state’s huge budget deficit. Feuerborn is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

He said today that turnpike tolls could be used as a ‘revenue stream’ for state government. Besides, he says, when the authority was established, state officials envisioned that its operations would be turned over to the state once the cost of building the turnpike had been paid.

read more

(Via KansasCity.com Prime Buzz - Today's political intelligence and insight.)

Stimulus talk spurs SLT hope in Lawrence, Kansas

Barack Obama’s imminent presidential inauguration — and, in particular, his plans for billions of dollars in infrastructure investment — is stimulating hope for completing the South Lawrence Trafficway in Lawrence. No matter which way the limited-access highway would go.

All the money talk comes as the trafficway saga approaches several key mileposts:

• Monday morning, two new Douglas County commissioners will be sworn in, shifting the governing body’s ideological majority as it pertains to the trafficway. Gone will be Commissioners Bob Johnson and Jere McElhaney, two proponents for building the trafficway through the wetlands. Now, incoming Commissioner Nancy Thellman will join incumbent Commissioner Charles Jones as being on record as not favoring a 32nd Street alignment, leaving incoming Commissioner Jim Flory in the minority. Just how the shift in thinking will affect the project, if at all, is unclear.

• Members of the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization soon will meet to discuss the county’s priorities for transportation projects. The trafficway long has been on the organization’s list, but now that the organization’s formal membership is changing — planning commissioners no longer will carry such responsibilities, instead turning them over to members including local elected officials and a representative from the Kansas Department of Transportation — the community’s formal priorities could shift. “The position of the county, as a position from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, likely will be changing in the very near future,” said Craig Weinaug, county administrator.