Topeka ? Legislative negotiators agreed Tuesday to provide additional money for aviation research and to keep a $39.5 million prison expansion program on track as they wrapped up work on the year’s last spending bill.

The three senators and three House members also decided to include money to prevent the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from closing.

Those were among the last issues settled as the negotiators reconciled dozens of differences between their chambers’ versions of the measure. The $300 million-plus bill would complete a budget of about $12.6 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Both chambers expected to vote on the compromise today. Their approval would send it to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and permit legislators to end their annual session, which began Jan. 8.

“We have absolutely dissected and considered nearly every item in the budget,” said Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, his chamber’s lead negotiator.

Prison expansion

The prison expansion program was a once-settled issue that resurfaced. Lawmakers authorized the bonds for it last month, and the Department of Corrections contemplated four projects providing 668 new beds.

Those projects were two new cellhouses at the state’s maximum security prison outside El Dorado, a new 240-bed drug-and-alcohol treatment center for inmates in Yates Center and expansion of the state prisons in Ellsworth and Stockton.

The issue was particularly important to Woodson County officials, who feared Yates Center would lose its project. The city, with 1,500 residents 80 miles south of Topeka, has been trying to attract a prison for more than two decade to boost its economy.

“It revitalizes hope,” Mayor Doug Tressler said of the negotiators’ action. “It certainly gives us the hope of building more of an economy, building more businesses.”

Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz also saw the Yates Center project as an opportunity to help rebuild programs decimated when the state experienced budget problems in 2002 and 2003. Between 70 percent and 80 percent of the state’s inmates have a substance abuse problem.

“These are people who are druggies, and they simply go in, come out, test dirty three times, get sent back in, don’t get cleaned up, come back out, test dirty,” said Rep. Pat Colloton, R-Leawood. “There are certain people who just have to go away for a while if they’re going to be cured.”

Other House members wanted to back away from the expansion program, noting that the state’s prison population declined slightly in the last half of 2006. Last week, House members settled on $21.9 million in bonds – $17.6 million less than previously approved.

Aviation institute

Another issue hanging up the last spending bill was additional money for the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University. Industry officials and area legislators pushed for $5 million.

Rep. Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, said each aviation research dollar creates $11 of economic activity and stimulates even more research.

“It directly leads to jobs,” he said.

Legislators appropriated half of the new money last month, and the House approved the other half in its version of the last spending bill. But senators didn’t, in line with Sebelius’ budget plan.

The compromise was $2.25 million, bringing the total of new dollars to $4.75 million.

As for the remaining $250,000, the negotiators set it aside for the Sports Hall of Fame in Wichita, if the hall can raise private donations to match it. Ongoing financial problems led the hall’s directors to vote in January to shut it down if the state didn’t provide funds.

The hall was established in 1961 when Kansas celebrated the 100th anniversary of statehood. But since its inception, it has received only about $400,000 from the state, including nothing last year.

After being located in Topeka and Lawrence, the hall moved to Abilene in 1997. It closed its doors in 2002 because of financial problems, but a $1.2 million donation from hotel developer John Q. Hammons allowed it to open in a bigger building in Wichita in November 2005.