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Kansas has the best roads in the country according to the latest issue of Reader’s Digest.
The magazine ranks all 50 states based congestion, road and bridge condition, safety and spending---
with Kansas taking home the top spot.
Governor Mark Parkinson was joined by former governors Bill Graves and Mike Hayden to celebrate
this accomplishment today at the Topeka KDOT office.
Today, we’ve been recognized in a national survey put out by Reader’s Digest as having
the very best road system in the country
The investment that Kansans have made, in their infrastructure, over many, many, many
years. My thanks to KDOT to the literally thousands of employees of KDOT over all those
years to deliver for Kansans on that investment.
Thank goodness there were people with the vision, the courage to increase taxes, because
that’s what it took. These roads aren’t free and they aren’t cheap. But if you’re
gonna invest in the future of your country and your state, you have to make that kind
of commitment.
Kansans can see the investment and accomplishments made in their county by visiting www.kansastlink.com
Readers Digest cited the drive along I-70 through Kansas as one of the nation’s best
drive. Truckers love this route because it’s smooth, flat and has few curves the magazine
said. It also offers drivers views of the flint hills and a chance to catch one of Kansas’
famous sunsets. However, a good transportation system can do more than just provide an easy
drive.
A terrific economic development. Anywhere you look that interchanges have been built
as a result of these programs, you will see vital businesses that have developed around
them. Our manufacturing sector in the central part of the state has flourished because of
the highway system we’ve created and we simply cannot stop.
While it’s nice to be number 1, officials warn that this success might be short-lived.
Today’s announcement is bittersweet for me. While I’m enormously proud of our transportation
system today, I have serious concerns about the future. KDOT has lost $257 million in
the last year due to budget cuts and we are currently spending less on construction than
we did in 1970s. If this trend continues, we can expect our roads to decline substantially.
We need a revenue increase to continue to have a transportation system that generates
economic growth, provides mobility and keeps Kansans safe.
For that reason, I proposed in the State of the State speech a two tenth’s sales tax
to formulate the basic structure of a new highway plan, of a new comprehensive transportation
plan. And it’s critically important that we do that. Ten years from now I would love
to be in the position that Governor Graves is in of being able to come and have a press
conference like this and look at the great things we’ve accomplished. Twenty years
from now it would be wonderful to be in the position of Governor Hayden is. I don’t
want to be in the position where, because we failed to act in 2010 we let all this great
work begin to deteriorate.