photo by: Journal-World Photo Illustration

Lawrence Journal-World Editorial

Kansas drivers should not be punished for lawmakers’ mistakes by being forced to pay tolls to fund highway projects, including an expanded South Lawrence Trafficway.

Kansas Department of Transportation officials said at a meeting last month that tolls could be used to fund expansion of two-lane highways like Kansas Highway 10 to four lanes. Kansas Turnpike Authority CEO Steve Hewitt said national trends are to use tolls to pay for 25 percent of a project’s construction and maintenance costs.

Specifically, Chris Herrick, KDOT fiscal and asset manager, said the proposal is a toll of 15 cents per mile for projects like the expansion of the SLT from two to four lanes. That compares with 6 cents per mile charged on the Kansas Turnpike.

About six miles of the SLT, from the intersection with Sixth Street to the intersection with Iowa Street, remains two lanes. The total distance of the SLT is about 15 miles, meaning a toll from the start of the SLT to the finish would be $2.25.

It is frustrating that a state with a .04 percent sales tax dedicated to funding highway projects is considering tolls to pay for projects. That’s because the state has delayed KDOT projects and instead swept money out of the transportation fund into the general fund to balance the budget. In 2010, it was assumed such transfers would average about $105 million annually for 10 years. Instead, transfers totaled $264 million in 2014, $425 million in 2015 and more than $500 million in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Some 21 projects were delayed by the fund transfers and now those projects are a top priority for KDOT. The South Lawrence Trafficway is not among the 21, but it is to the point that KDOT has launched a study into the environmental aspects of expanding the road. The study is expected to take three years.

County officials plan to testify at a KDOT hearing Nov. 8 in Olathe in opposition to a toll on the SLT. “I don’t want to see Lawrence end up served by two toll roads,” County Commissioner Mike Gaughan said, referencing the Kansas Turnpike, which goes along Lawrence’s northern border.

A toll on the SLT could have far-reaching negative effects on Lawrence, including reducing use of the road, increasing traffic congestion in areas where the SLT was supposed to reduce it and stalling economic development.

If lawmakers hadn’t repeatedly used transportation funds as the state’s emergency piggybank, perhaps the SLT and other road projects could be funded by the transportation fund as was intended. Instead, residents in Lawrence and elsewhere in Kansas face the prospect of paying both the sales tax and several more tolls just to drive around the state. That seems misguided and unfair.