Topeka — A Senate committee has approved a measure designed to correct problems that arose when the state made errors in the distribution of fuel tax revenue.
The measure would modify fuel tax appropriations to all 105 counties over the next five years.
Counties who received more fuel tax money than they should have would have their allocation decreased until counties that didn't get enough are reimbursed.
Mistakes by the state revenue and treasurer's office meant 100 counties were overpaid in fuel taxes. Five counties Shawnee, Barton, Butler, Douglas and Leavenworth were shorted a total of $11.1 million during the past decade.
Of that total, Shawnee County is entitled to $5.3 million, Douglas County, owed $2.5 million; Butler County, shorted $1.9 million; Leavenworth County, missing $1.1 million; and Barton County, shorted $159,000.
The computer programming errors and calculation mistakes that caused the problem have been corrected.
The fuel tax funding is forwarded to counties and shared with cities and townships for the purpose of fixing roads.
The Kansas Department of Revenue helped skew the calculations by providing incorrect data about vehicle registrations to the treasurer's office. At the same time, a software programming error introduced at the treasurer's office went undetected for years.
State audits from 2000 through 2007 hadn't uncovered the problem, but in 2008 then-Treasurer Lynn Jenkins notified Republican legislative leaders she had learned problems existed in allocation of tax revenue on fuel. Jenkins, a Republican, didn't share that information with Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. The issue wasn't made public until Jenkins was campaigning for the U.S. House against Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda.
The 2009 Legislature attempted to correct three years of fuel tax accounting miscues by authorizing payment of $6.6 million to 20 counties thought to have been shorted by the state. Overpaid counties weren't required to repay funding in that bill. In that budget bill, Shawnee County captured $3.3 million.
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lindseydoyle (anonymous) says…
"Treasurer Lynn Jenkins notified Republican legislative leaders she had learned problems existed in allocation of tax revenue on fuel. Jenkins, a Republican, didn't share that information with Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. The issue wasn't made public until Jenkins was campaigning for the U.S. House against Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda."
Way to go Kansas in voting this partisan politico in.