One of the ways the Kansas House of Representatives proposes to finance an income tax cut is to transfer money from the Department of Transportation budget to the general fund.
The transfer the House leadership has in mind is at least $159.6 million and may be as much as $180 million, depending on who does the math.
Unfortunately, there is nothing new in this tactic. Legislatures and governors have been using KDOT as a piggy bank for more than two decades. More than $1 billion has been taken from the transportation budget and spent elsewhere.
But KDOT is no miraculous money tree. If the Legislature takes these millions away from KDOT and, in effect, hands them to the upper income Kansans who will benefit most from the governor’s income tax cuts, highway construction projects will be trimmed back or eliminated.
This isn’t a good trade for several reasons. First, there is no economic justification for the upper bracket income tax reductions. To say the high earners will take the money and create jobs with it is unsubstantiated theory. The money would be saved or spent in as many different ways as there are beneficiaries of this soak-the-poor, coddle-the-rich theory.
Second, highway projects create jobs. Cutting the KDOT budget will increase unemployment in Kansas. This is straight-forward, one-to-one math. There is no better way to stimulate an economy than to invest money in needed public works. Conversely, reducing spending on building highways, bridges, schools and other public facilities immediately shrinks employment and reduces consumer spending.
Third, Kansas has a superior network of highways because Kansas has invested wisely in its transportation system. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why Kansas has not suffered as much from the recession as other states. It is essential to our state’s continued well-being to keep our highways superior by maintaining them well and improving them where improvement is needed. That can’t happen if the Legislature continues to rob the KDOT budget and governors continue to encourage that larceny.
Four, the transfer of money from KDOT to the general fund for ideological purposes is a legal fraud. It is fraudulent because Kansans think the tax on highway fuels goes to build and maintain highways. Using it to give tax breaks to those who don’t need them is low-level, political theft.
STATE TRANSPORTATION departments that have budget security and can plan ahead with confidence spend less on transportation because the in-state contractors they use for construction and substantial maintenance also have security, can depend on having work every year and can assemble and maintain skilled crews and modern, adequate equipment. These at-home contractors such as Se-Kan Asphalt of Gas are an enormous asset. But it is an asset put at risk when the state treats highway funding as though it were free money that can be spent willy-nilly.
Let’s look at it for what it is: Spending KDOT funds to cut income taxes is spending it to buy votes. Period. Kansas deserves better.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
