Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves and other leading state officials didn’t let a nearly $700 million budget shortfall stop them from flying at taxpayer expense to St. Louis to watch the Kansas Jayhawks play in the NCAA tournament.

Graves and company flew to the first-round game Thursday in a state aircraft, officials confirmed Friday.

It was not known Friday what the exact cost of the trip would be, but officials estimated use of the plane cost about $700.

The trip was arranged by Graves, who brought along Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, Sen. David Corbin, R-Towanda, who is chairman of the Senate tax committee, and Jack Brier, a longtime Graves’ friend, whom Graves appointed as president of the Kansas Development Finance Authority. Graves’ bodyguard also went.

The men were flown to St. Louis, attended the game and then returned to Topeka, said Graves’ spokesman Don Brown.

Brown said Graves purchased the tickets for the game from his own pocket for the entire party and will not ask to be reimbursed by the state.

But taxpayers will foot the bill for the two hours of flight time, he said.

“This was an official state flight,” Brown said. “The governor was there in his capacity as a representative of the state.”

“This is a regents institution at a national caliber event. It would have been conspicuous if he had not been there,” Brown said.

Ben Baumon, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Administration, said the two hours of flight time would cost about $700 but that did not include the pilot’s salary because the pilot is paid whether he is flying or not.

Some lawmakers said the trip was inappropriate given the state’s financial difficulties.

Kansas lawmakers face an estimated $700 million revenue shortfall in a $4.5 billion budget. Most lawmakers agree that a combination of cuts to state programs and major tax increases will be needed to bridge the budget gap.

“It doesn’t look good, particularly at a time when we are completely swamped under this budget deficit,” Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said of Graves’ trip.

Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, said the trip “confirms a lot of negative perceptions that people have.”

The plane Graves took is a King Air 350 turbo prop which was purchased last year at a cost to taxpayers of about $4 million. The purchase caused a stir because the Graves administration bought it without legislative approval.

Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway also traveled to the game at state expense on KU’s jet, said KU spokesman Todd Cohen.

Riding along with Hemenway were two Kansas University Endowment Association officials, Cohen said. They were Dolph C. Simons Jr., editor and publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World and president of the association’s board of trustees, and Kevin Corbett, the association’s vice president for development.

The jet returned to Kansas, though Hemenway and the others remained in St. Louis to meet with alumni donors there at a reception, Cohen said. The use of the aircraft for the trip will cost just less than $1,000, he said.