The backlog of maintenance needs at state universities is shocking now, but it will only get worse.

Given the current focus on K-12 education in the state, it may be difficult to get state legislators to focus on the need to deal with a backlog of maintenance at state university campuses.

However, the figures that members of an interim legislative committee will get from the Kansas Board of Regents this week should be enough to get their attention.

Reggie Robinson, regents president and chief executive officer, reports that it would take $585 million to clear the current backlog of maintenance projects on state university campuses. If the state doesn’t move to attack the backlog now, that figure, he said, could reach $800 million in less than a decade.

It’s not that universities haven’t maintained their facilities, Robinson said, it’s that heating, electrical and plumbing systems have simply worn out. It may be possible to nurse those systems along for a few more years, but during that time not only are replacement costs rising, universities also are operating with utility systems that are inefficient and unreliable.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that this problem must be addressed sooner rather than later. Despite the many demands on state funds, interim committee members should give high priority to dealing with this situation now and protecting the state from expensive remedial action down the road.