A sales tax in Johnson County is providing for new cancer facilities for the Kansas University Cancer Center, and new degree programs and buildings at KU’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

Two years ago, Johnson County voters approved a one-eighth cent sales tax that would be divided equally among KU’s Edwards Campus, KU Medical Center and Kansas State University’s Olathe Innovation campus.

The tax never sunsets — and university officials said they would continue to invest new revenue in the programs they marketed to county residents in 2008.

With revenues flowing, the universities are getting ready to provide new services and open new buildings. Ed Eilert, chairman of the Johnson County Education Research Triangle authority board, said sales tax collections have held steady at between $13 million and $14 million per year. The tax had been estimated to generate $15 million annually before the recent recession hit, Eilert said.

The Edwards Campus building and associated programs could grow enrollment at KU by as much as 1,000 students. A new 75,000 square foot Business, Engineering, Science and Technology building is set to open a year from now.

“The kinds of progress we offer are the kinds that will generate more jobs,” said Bob Clark, KU vice chancellor and dean of the Edwards Campus.

It will offer a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and a second new bachelor’s degree — an information technology degree through the School of Engineering — is working its way through the state’s approval process, Clark said.

Maxine Stoltz, senior executive director for KUMC’s Clinical Research Center in Fairway, is serving as a project manager overseeing the renovations to the building, at 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway. She said the total cost of the renovations — including purchasing needed equipment — would likely be between $20 million and $25 million.

The Hall Family Foundation donated the building to KU contingent on the passage of the sales tax. Stoltz said KU was adding a conference center in front of the existing building.

The new space will be used for Phase I clinical trials and for clinical transitional research — which involves developing ways to get drugs ready to move out of the laboratory to a patient’s bedside.

Both Stoltz and Clark said that they’ll be paying bond payments on the new buildings for years to come, but that additional sales tax revenue would be used to invest in the new programs.

“We don’t expect to make any money whatsoever on this,” Stoltz said.

For the KU Cancer Center, any extra revenue would mean a greater flexibility for researchers to pursue new ideas, she said. And at KU Edwards Campus, Clark said sales tax revenue could be used to provide new faculty, advisers or other academic support for the new programs.

“I think the progress that is going to take place at the three university sites has the potential to generate a significant amount of economic activity in Johnson County and the metro area,” Eilert said.