Washington ? Pinched by soaring defense costs, a budget deficit and tax cuts, President Bush’s budget proposal would rein in spending on projects in Kansas and other states.

Unveiled Monday, Bush’s budget for next year would mean less government money for flood control and for construction at U.S. military bases, which channel millions of dollars each year into the state’s economy.

But the war on terrorism provides at least a kernel of good news for Kansas: Continued military work for Boeing Wichita, which is enduring layoffs of up to 5,000 people because of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The war prompted Bush to seek the biggest increase in military spending in two decades, pushing Pentagon funding up $48 billion to $361 billion.

“The president is going to step up work on the Airborne Laser program,” said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and its defense spending panel. Boeing is designing a laser weapon system mounted on a commercial 747 platform to shoot down Scuds and other ballistic missiles before they leave enemy territory.

“The modifications plus the ground testing are done in Wichita; they’re making significant changes to the airplane, so they run quite a few tests before it’s ever put on the end of a runway,” Tiahrt said. “All that’s done in Wichita.”

Bush wants to spend $598 million to keep developing the program next year, which in government terms begins Oct. 1. Current funding is more than $475 million.

The president also proposes spending more than $211 million for 35 more Wichita-built Joint Primary Aircraft Training System, or JPATS, planes for undergraduate pilots. That is a reduction from the Pentagon’s 46-plane, $254 million order this year, mostly because the Air Force is still buying the Beech Aircraft-built planes but the Navy isn’t.

“But the JPATS program stays on the production line they have in the Air Force, so that’s still good news,” Tiahrt said.

Waterway funding

The rest of the news is equally mixed. While Bush wants millions more dollars to restore fish and wildlife habitat along the Missouri River a $17.5 million endeavor across Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, up from $13 million this year he also wants to cut flood-control funding along the nation’s waterways.

That means no new construction on dams and levees wherever possible, the Bush administration said in a statement accompanying its budget proposal for the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the flow along the nation’s waterways.

Thus Kansas would see only one construction project, worth $3 million at Arkansas City.

Funding for basic operations at selected Kansas lakes and reservoirs stayed roughly the same $1.9 million at Clinton Lake, $1.49 million at Council Grove Lake, $460,000 at El Dorado Lake, $552,000 at Elk City Lake, $1.2 million at Fall River Lake, $752,000 at Hillsdale Lake, $1.14 million at John Redmond Dam and Reservoir, $1.52 million for Kanopolis Lake, $2 million at Milford Lake, $1.05 million at Pearson-Skubitz Big Hill Lake, $2.11 million at Perry Lake, $1.89 million at Pomona Lake, $424,000 at Toronto Lake, $2.1 million at Tuttle Creek Lake and $1.85 million at Wilson Lake.

The corps budget also has $340,000 for surveying at Topeka, Turkey Creek and the Walnut and Whitewater River watersheds and $250,000 for design and engineering at Turkey Creek Basin.

Congress typically adds several more projects as Tiahrt did for the current fiscal year, securing $200,000 for a study of whether Augusta’s levee should be strengthened.

But that opens up what looks to be a perennial battle between Bush and Congress over “earmarks” in the 13 annual spending bills. Among Bush’s proposals already being shot down are those to eliminate more than 1,000 education, science and health projects that lawmakers have won for their home districts.

Construction cuts

Another piece of potentially bad news: Despite a 4.1 percent pay raise for military service members as well as other increases, Bush’s request would actually shave construction at U.S. military bases by $1.7 billion.

In Kansas, this leaves room for only a handful of proposed projects, including $41 million for a barracks complex at Fort Riley and $14.6 million for an Armed Forces Reserve Center at Topeka. The Army National Guard would get about $1.4 million for projects at Fort Riley and Kansas City.

Much of Bush’s plan does not break down its impact on each state; however, officials in Kansas and elsewhere are closely watching some proposals, including:

Highway spending is being slashed by almost $9 billion, because gasoline tax revenues have dropped and the administration is unwilling to make up the difference.

States would get $1 billion more for special education costs, moving Washington toward paying about 20 percent of the cost from the current 15. Kansas is currently paying $90 million to $100 million that the federal government should be paying, according to state Education Department estimates.

Congress pledged to fund its special education mandate at 40 percent a quarter of a century ago but never did.