A Reader Views letter writer on today’s Opinion pages puts forth two of the most persistent notions in Kansas — that the Kansas Turnpike would one day be toll-free and that the Kansas Lottery would fund public schools.
Any thinking that the turnpike, built in 22 months and opened Oct. 25, 1956, would end up a freeway was put to rest by its initial lower-than-projected revenues. Over the years, more bonding has occurred to pay for improvements. No tax dollars support the turnpike.
Though 70 percent of Kansans in a 1985 survey favored using lottery money for public education, the law that passed the Legislature and won voters’ support the next year earmarked the revenue for statewide reappraisal, economic development and prison construction.
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