Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves says he is disappointed higher education officials haven’t made a greater effort to lobby lawmakers for increased funding.

The Kansas Board of Regents and universities have focused most of their energies during the legislative session on passage of a bill to help build research facilities at three universities, including Kansas University, he said.

Graves supports the research bill but has said throughout the session that lawmakers should first address higher education funding in light of a record $700 million state revenue shortfall.

Higher education officials gave up at the outset of the session in getting the Legislature to fund the final phase of Senate Bill 345, the 1999 higher education reform act, Graves said. The funds were to go to faculty pay raises and community college property tax relief.

“I expected there to be advocacy for the budget generally before we did the icing on the cake, the research piece,” Graves said.

“It would be fair to say that I am disappointed there just wasn’t ever any energy generated for the budget, generally for 345. Everybody just kind of gave up on it and said let’s take what we can get,” he said.

The research bill, he said, was an easy vote for lawmakers because it required no expenditures for the next fiscal year.

Under the research bill, the state would authorize as much as $130 million in bonds to help build research facilities at KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. A companion piece would add $13 million in bonds for improvements at an aviation lab in Wichita and $7 million in future funding for the lab.

“It’s important legislation, but the fact that it is bonded in the out year makes it incredibly simple for people to do,” Graves said.

Different versions of the research proposal have been approved in the House and Senate. It is now in a conference committee.

The research bill has been one of the highest-profile pieces of legislation this year. During the first week of the session, more than 100 lawmakers traveled to Kansas State to be briefed on the projects.

Though the bill won large majorities in the House and Senate, several lawmakers have voiced the same concerns as Graves.

But Kim Wilcox, president of the Kansas Board of Regents, said the regents continue to lobby the Legislature for more funding.

“I don’t think we’ve given up on the budget. We are more engaged. The board plans to do some pretty serious advocacy,” in the coming weeks, he said.

Wilcox conceded that lawmakers probably found the research bill easier to vote for since it had no fiscal implications for the next fiscal year.

After the Senate approved the research bill Wednesday, Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Clay Blair said, “We will turn our full focus and attention on the budget issue.”