The state’s formula for distributing money for public transit programs is “not equitable at all for Topeka,” City Councilman Larry Wolgast told members of Shawnee County’s legislative delegation Tuesday.

Wolgast urged legislators to work during the upcoming session to address that.

“We are tremendously disadvantaged,” he said.

Wolgast spoke during a six-hour, 20-minute meeting at the Statehouse in which the legislative delegation heard requests from representatives of 17 different entities. Those included Washburn University, local school districts, Shawnee County and the city of Topeka.

Topeka’s city council last week approved a 2010 legislative agenda that included requests that local lawmakers:

• Seek to continue the operation of the Kansas Neurological Institute, which a state commission has recommended closing.

• Support continued development of the Capitol complex and state operations in downtown Topeka.

• Seek enhanced state funding for the financially strapped Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Whitney Damron, a lobbyist who works under contract for the city, had been scheduled to speak to the legislative delegation about the city’s agenda at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Council members Wolgast and Karen Hiller arrived shortly before then to learn Damron had already made his presentation.

Though Wolgast and Hiller weren’t scheduled to speak, the legislators asked if they had anything to say.

Wolgast responded by stressing the importance of making the state’s funding formula more equitable for TMTA. He said the city next year will again face money issues regarding the transit system.

The council last August sought to help TMTA cope with its financial problems by raising the annual property tax mill levy the transit service assesses from 3 mills this year to 4.4 mills for next year. The 1.4 mills amounts to an increase of $16.10 annually in the TMTA property tax assessment for the owner of a $100,000 house.

The county legislative delegation also heard Tuesday from Shawnee County Commission Chairman Vic Miller, who was accompanied by Commissioner Ted Ensley.

Miller recalled that the county prior to last year’s legislative session had asked local legislators to work to arrange for the county to be reimbursed for motor fuel tax revenue the state had shorted it over the previous nine years.

He thanked the Shawnee County delegation Tuesday for convincing the state earlier this year to reimburse about $3.3 million in motor fuel tax revenue the county had been shorted over the prior three years.

But Miller expressed concern about a proposal through which state prison inmates serving the last parts of their sentences would be housed in county jails instead of state prisons, meaning the counties — instead of the state — would absorb the costs. He asked legislators during the upcoming session to avoid shifting any costs currently borne by the state to local governmental entities.

Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, told fellow members of the county delegation near the end of Tuesday’s meeting that she planned to pursue some sort of legislation during the session regarding K2, a smokable legal herb that users say mimics the high of marijuana.

Schmidt provided her fellow legislators a copy of an article about K2 published last month in the University Daily Kansan, the student newspaper at The University of Kansas. The article said researchers are concerned about the drug because its toxicity and long-term effects aren’t known.

Concerns over keeping a strong bus service in Topeka brought people together Tuesday.

Topeka Independent Living Resource Center held a meeting to update its clients on possible cuts in Topeka Transit routes.

Topeka Transit was poised to end evening and Sunday service April 1st, but has now delayed that until at least April 22nd while it explores other funding options.

The Center’s executive director Mike Oxford says they’d like to see the cap on city property tax funding for Topeka Transit lifted. He says the organization also believes community and government leaders should come together to develop a long-range plan. He says the plan needs to include all possible sources of funding so that Topeka Transit doesn’t find itself in a crisis, asking for more tax dollars, every few years.

Transit officials were to meet with Topeka City Council members Tuesday night to talk about planning and funding options.

TOPEKA, Kan. – Topeka Transit hopes some extra funding from the City will help prevent making more cuts to the operation.

Board members met Friday at an emergency work session to discuss what can be done to help prevent them from putting Phase Two into action – this means buses would come every hour rather than half hour.

Phase One begins April 1, which means Topeka Transit will no longer provide bus service after 6:30 p.m. on weekdays or at all on Sundays.

Transit officials say things like bus repair, replacement needs and the sluggish economy add up to costs they cannot keep up with.

Jack Alexander, Transit Authority board member, said, “We don’t want to have to do what we’ve already made the decision to do, and that’s start scaling back. We’re now wanting to educate the council in hopes that they have ideas that they could join us in keeping the system running.”

Board members will meet with Topeka city council members to discuss additional funding.

Community members met tonight for the last of four public hearing meetings at the Topeka Transit Quincy Station. The meetings give Topekans a chance to voice their opinions about the possibility of route changes. Starting April first, there will no longer be bus service on weekdays after 6:30 PM or on Sundays at all. The board says without additional funding, there is not much they can do.

The group, “Topekans in Support of Public Transit”, will give recommendations to city council at their weekly meeting.