Message from Secretary Deb Miller: T-WORKS is reason to smile!
I’m walking around a lot these days with a smile on my face.
It’s been that way since May 11, when the Legislature passed the 10-year transportation program T-WORKS. And I keep smiling because of the great things this will allow us to do for Kansas: preserve our top-ranked highway system, make needed safety improvements, allow the state to invest strategically in economic opportunities, and support non-highway modes.
Just as importantly, it will create or sustain an estimated 60,000 construction jobs and 175,000 total jobs throughout the Kansas economy.
It wasn’t easy to get the T-WORKS bill passed; legislation this big and complex never is. But the fact that it passed in this tough but improving economic climate makes the accomplishment even more exceptional.
I am so grateful for
the leadership of Governor Parkinson, who may have been the staunchest advocate for a new program. And I’m equally grateful to the majority of the Legislature who not only supported the transportation bill, but also voted for the all-important revenue bill, which provides the key funding. Many of those legislators cast their votes knowing they were putting their political careers on the line. But they put those concerns aside and voted to move the state and our economy forward....
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