Kansas DOT returns $11 million savings to state budget

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) recently announced that it will contribute $8 million from its savings to state budget reductions.

The reductions were announced during the agency’s fiscal year 2015 operations budget. Last year, KDOT had a budget amounting to $250 million for its operations. The agency spent just $239 million of the budget, saving approximately $11 million.

“I’m proud that we were smart in how we spent money last year and created some savings,” Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King said. “But we also benefited from a mild winter that required fewer staff hours in snow plows and less spending on sand and salt. As a result, we can make this reduction without layoffs or cancelling or delaying projects.”

The operations budget for fiscal 2016 -- which pays for wages, salaries, commodities, contractual services, capital outlay and more -- will remain at $250 million.

“I want to thank Shawn Sullivan for allowing KDOT more flexibility in delivering transportation services to the state,” King said. “Under Shawn’s expanded role, we have already seen efficiencies in inter-agency workings and elimination of agency duplication of services. This gives us the ability to deliver great value to Kansans.”