Topeka ? House member Bill Otto gestures wildly with both hands while expressing deep frustration with the lack of highway promotional signs pointing to tourism or business hot spots in southeast Kansas.

Federal government mandates and the state government’s interpretation of those edicts, he said, are to blame for lack of signage signaling the birthplace of baseball great Walter Johnson in Humboldt, the Big Brutus coal-mining contraption in West Mineral and the annual celebration of comedian Buster Keaton in Iola.

It is worse for small businesses trying to gain the attention of motorists, Otto said.

“I want a change in philosophy,” said Otto, a LeRoy Republican. “Instead of looking for the most restrictive on what they can get away with, I want them to start looking for the least restrictive.”

He has proposed a bill that would allow all outdoor advertising structures authorized by local zoning officials before June 30, 2006, to be considered legal in Kansas.

The measure is opposed by the Kansas Department of Transportation, which takes the position that Otto’s bill would contradict federal law on “spot zoning” and cost the state $22.5 million in federal highway funding.

“KDOT would be subject to a 10 percent reduction of federal funding for several highway programs,” said Terry Heidner, legislative liaison for the state agency. “A reduction in federal highway funding to Kansas in these tough economic times would be devastating.”

State programs receiving portions of that federal aid are tied to congestion mitigation, air quality and interstate maintenance activities.

Otto said dire financial implications of the bill were inflated by KDOT because the agency doesn’t hesitate to interfere with local decision making on highway advertising.

“I think it’s baloney,” the representative said. “We’re right at the bottom of the tourism rankings. We’re not Hawaii. We’re not Florida. But we shouldn’t be behind the Dakotas.”

Rep. Gary Hayzlett, a Lakin Republican and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, scheduled a hearing on Otto’s measure, House Bill 2122, for Thursday. He said he shared Otto’s skepticism about the potential impact on federal highway financing if the bill were adopted. KDOT will need to demonstrate losses would be real, he said.

“I want them to tell me where that $22.5 million would go,” Hayzlett said.

Otto said he is weary of driving in other states that apparently allow advertising signs to be placed next to roadways without reservation. He said search no further for proof than highways leading to regional tourism mecca Branson, Mo.

In contrast, Otto said, folks have had a difficult time finding Arnold’s Greenhouse in LeRoy. Motorists flying along US-169 highway miss the turn and end up in Iola.

“That’s happened,” greenhouse owner George Arnold said in a telephone interview.

He said KDOT forced him to take down a business sign on US-75 highway. Something about it being too close to the highway, he said. There are now two privately financed signs touting the greenhouse, one each on US-75 and K-58 highway. The state did install a tourism sign, financed by a special fee on participating businesses, that points to the greenhouse in LeRoy.

“Sometimes,” Arnold said, “the left hand of government doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”