Legislation passed two years ago to give the Kansas Department of Transportation more authority over the Kansas Turnpike was presented as a trial and even included a provision for certain provisions to sunset on July 1, 2016.

For better or worse, that trial now has been declared a success in a bill signed March 30 by Gov. Sam Brownback.

House Bill 2085 amends the 2013 law to eliminate all the sunset provisions. It also designates the Kansas secretary of transportation as director of the Kansas Turnpike Authority. The KDOT secretary previously had been the “director of operations.” In 2013, the KTA already had a director, former legislator Mike Johnston, but when Johnston resigned that post in June 2013, the job was never filled. There really was no need because the legislation had transferred all of the operational duties to the KDOT secretary.

Brownback had called for a merger of KTA and KDOT in his 2013 State of the State address. That process now seems all but complete. The law he signed March 30 says that KTA “shall retain its separate identity” and its board, which is made up of the KDOT secretary, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, a member of the House Transportation Committee and two members appointed by the governor.

However, the bill also authorizes the KDOT secretary and transportation secretary to contract with one another “to provide personnel and equipment” for a broad range of administrative functions as well as “construction, operation and maintenance of turnpike projects and highways of the state.” With the KDOT secretary largely in control of both entities it seems unlikely there would be much disagreement about the terms of such contracts.

Income from turnpike tolls always has been reserved for staffing and maintaining the turnpike, but some Kansans are concerned that won’t continue to be the case. Could KTA funds be diverted to pay for non-KTA projects or depleted, as KDOT funds have been, to help balance other areas of the state budget?

The governor contended that merging KTA and KDOT would save the state money and reduce duplication of equipment and services. That is a positive goal, but Kansans also will be watching to see what impact the latest link between the two entities will have on the maintenance and quality of highways in the state.