Topeka ? A state legislator says Gov. Bill Graves is illegally spending $750,000 to place a statue on top of the Capitol.

Rep. Lana Gordon, R-Topeka, on Friday asked Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall for a legal opinion on the expenditure to install the statue depicting a Kansa Indian.

Graves vetoed legislation that would have prohibited him from spending state funds to reinforce the Capitol dome for the 21-foot-tall statue.

Construction work is under way to prepare the structure for the statue, which is scheduled to be hoisted into place in early October.

Gordon said Graves’ authority to veto line-item spending provisions did not extend to measures in which the Legislature prohibits certain expenses.

“I do not believe the Kansas Constitution allows the governor to overturn a funding prohibition as he did in the budget bill he approved,” Gordon said. “It is important for this question of law to be answered now, in an effort to save Kansas taxpayers thousands of dollars.”

Ben Bauman, a Graves administration spokesman, said the governor “feels pretty confident that he does have the authority to do what he did.”

Graves, a Republican, has been under fire from members of his party and Democrats for refusing to back down from spending money for the statue project while the state falls deeper into a financial hole.

Stovall’s office did not return a telephone call for comment on when the legal opinion would be completed.