Topeka ? Kansas legislators are starting a discussion about a new state transportation program.

House and Senate committees planned to hear this week from Transportation Secretary Deb Miller on the state of the Kansas transportation system.

Miller is scheduled to speak to the House committee Wednesday and to the Senate committee on Thursday.

Legislators must decide whether to create a new, multiyear plan for financing transportation improvements. It would be a follow-up to the 10-year, $13 billion program that ended last summer.

But any plan is likely to require a tax increase, and the state is trying to close a projected shortfall approaching $400 million in its budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.