Topeka — Good policy, bad politics.
That's the assessment Kansas Board of Regents Chairwoman Donna Shank gave to the regents' proposal to increase taxes to clear up a nearly $600 million backlog of repairs and maintenance projects at state universities.
"We recognize the timing isn't ideal because it is an election year, but it seems there is never an ideal time when we're talking about this much money," Shank said.
Shank said the regents would introduce the proposal during the legislative session that starts Monday. The plan includes a proposed one-tenth-cent statewide sales tax, a one-mill property tax increase and the issuance of $150 million in bonds.
It would raise $1.5 billion in the next 15 years to take care of a long list of repairs at regents university buildings across the state, and provide enough for annual maintenance to avoid a future backlog.
Studies have shown there are hundreds of needed repairs, including some required to fix dangerous situations. Universities receive about $7 million annually for repairs, although estimates show about $74 million is needed each year.
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A regents report shows that maintenance needs on the KU-Lawrence campus total about $168.5 million; for the KU Medical Center that amount is $68.8 million.
"It's a critical issue, in my opinion, with life-safety concerns," Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said. "We certainly would not tolerate those kind of conditions at K- through-12 schools, and why we would tolerate it at universities, I don't know."
But Morris and other legislative leaders concede there is little stomach for more taxes.
"If we don't pass something, I have a feeling the regents will turn to tuition increases," House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said.
But Shank said that idea didn't sit well with her.
So, she said, the regents will present their plan to the Legislature and hope that lawmakers will suggest alternatives.
The deferred maintenance problem, she said, "has to be addressed at some point of time.
"We're just going forward and trying to set the politics aside," she said.
- Staff writer Scott Rothschild can be reached at (785) 354-4222.
Comments
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classclown (Class Clown) says…
Didn't they just raise rates at the universities? Now they want to dig into my pocket? Maybe they should get money from all those people that are given favored status for giving the schools money at sporting events.
Godot (anonymous) says…
Do the jaded KU administrators and alumni association execs really think that ordinary Kansans would not expect them to set aside a portion of donors' money for buildings in order to maintain the buildings? The reason KU's unfunded maintenance bill is so high is that KU has kept building without planning for maintenance. This is KU's problem, not the problem of the taxpayers of the State of Kansas.
Every time they erect a new monument to the ego of a KU alum (otherwise known as a building) all I see is another "unfunded mandate" in the form of maintenance.
Maintenace of these structures, above and beyond KU's share of the
State's maintenance allotment, is solely the responsibility of the KU Endowment Association. They created the problem; they own it.
lawrencelawyer (anonymous) says…
Maybe if the current Governor wouldn't have allowed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, the universities might have enough money to pay for their maintenence issues. Even if there's an argument about there not being that many of them registered to attend our state schools, her doing that certainly did not help our regents institutions.