Considering the state’s current financial status, it only makes sense for officials to carefully examine just about every expenditure of state funds.

Although the state has closed prisons and cut funding for social services and education and still is being forced to delay scheduled fund transfers, legislators still saw fit this year to approve $38 million in bonds to keep the Statehouse renovation project going. That may be a prudent move, but as House Majority Leader Ray Merrick said this week, “We owe it to ourselves and the people of this state” to make sure.

At Merrick’s request, the Legislative Coordinating Council has agreed to consider hiring a Kansas City, Mo., management firm to review the Statehouse renovation, which now has grown into a $285 million project.

By all reports, the restoration work being done is beautiful and of high quality. When they approved the additional bonds, legislators also pointed out that it made no sense to delay the project when it was about three-fourths done and that stopping the project and restarting it in a few years would only raise the price tag.

They also speculated that the state could benefit from lower labor and materials costs that have resulted from the slumping economy. It’s true that bids for many government construction projects are coming in under the estimates, but will that really help the state on the specialized Statehouse project? It seems that legislators already have sent the message that they are willing to appropriate about any amount of money contractors say is needed to do this project “right.”

Yet, while legislators were approving $38 million in bonds for the Statehouse project, the Kansas Board of Regents had to fight to claim $7.7 million for maintenance projects on all of its state university campuses. That amount is appreciated, but it will hardly make a dent in the maintenance backlog, which has grown to an estimated $825 million.

It’s too late to go back and limit the scope of the Statehouse project, so perhaps the state has no reasonable option but to spend the money and move ahead but, as Merrick said, we “owe it to ourselves” to make sure.