Kansas Democrats allege political retaliation in effort to defund US- 75 highway project

A failed effort by Kansas Senate Republicans to defund a highway project north of Topeka is alleged by Democrats to be a case of political retaliation.

The Senate's budget negotiators proposed a proviso late Tuesday night to strip funding for the planned expansion of US-75 highway to four lanes north of Holton, an area represented by Sen. Dennis Pyle, R-Hiawatha.

At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the YouTube livestream of the meeting shows that Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, proposed the proviso while Sen. J.R. Claeys, R-Salina, smiled, held up a paper in a way that blocked in-person attendees from seeing his mouth, then appeared to mouth, "Pyle, it's Pyle."

"That would move the funding from Highway 75 that is currently an IKE program item that was selected and instead put it into the US-400 project that would go from Garden City to the east and making that a four lane as far east as we could go with $190 million," Claeys said.

Pyle has had a long-running feud with Senate Republican leadership. He left the Republican party in 2022 and ran for governor as an independent, a move viewed as siphoning votes away from Republican nominee Derek Schmidt. He has since rejoined the Republican party ahead of an anticipated three-way GOP primary for his Senate seat in the 2024 elections.

A text sent out Wednesday morning by Jackson County Democrats alleged the move was "retaliation of Sen. Pyle for bucking the Republican establishment — politics at its best/worst!"

The US-75 highway project was one of 17 highway projects announced March 7 by Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas Department of Transportation as part of the Eisenhower Legacy Transportation Program's development pipeline, better known as IKE.

The 17 projects statewide totaled $932 million.

More: $126 million project announced to widen US-75 highway to four lanes north of Holton

A separate news release from KDOT's northeast district office touted $126 million going to expanding US-75 to four lanes between Holton and K-20, plus a $25 million one in Johnson County and a $35 million one in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. That put the region total at $186 million.

Senate Republicans would have apparently defunded all of them, as the proviso called for stripping away $190 million. Claeys said that was the figure cited in a release.

The regional news release said that Kelly appreciated Pyle "for his longstanding efforts to advance this project," as well as the efforts of local community leaders.

"The successful community efforts to raise awareness of transportation needs along the US-75 corridor in northeast Kansas makes us all proud," Pyle said in the news release.

Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, said he didn't like the idea of legislators designating specific transportation projects for funding pressed Claeys to explain why the Senate wanted that proviso. Claeys said it was about prioritizing the southwest Kansas project.

"We would stop them from spending those dollars on 75 and redirect that to US-400 in southwest Kansas," Claeys said.

Rep. Henry Helgerson, D-Eastborough, asked "was there something wrong" with the US-75 project.

In a cryptically worded response, Claeys suggested the issue was with how the various highway projects have been prioritized and the senators "just decided that we would prefer the southwest Kansas highway over the one on 75."

Helgerson said lawmakers delegated those duties to professionals at KDOT "to try to keep the politics out of it."

"I take great umbrage that you don't find me an expert in this field," Claeys said, "but I — we — have found that we prefer the southwest Kansas project over the one on 75."

Waymaster later refused to agree to the proviso. He said if legislators start making decisions on what transportation projects deserve funding, "We're opening Pandora's box." But as negotiations continued past 11 p.m., Billinger said the Senate wasn't budging.

"That is terrible policy," Waymaster said.

The impasse continued when legislators returned Wednesday, but Senate negotiators ultimately agreed to finalize a budget without that proviso.

"That US-75 highway project is in the pipeline, they have a projected cost, they've done the right of ways, easements — it's moving forward," Waymaster said.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Senate GOP tried to defund US-75 highway project near Holton