Concerns are being raised about a proposal to make one of Lawrence’s busiest highways into a toll road. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Douglas County Commission Chair Nancy Thellman says a delegation of city and county officials will testify before the state’s Joint Legislative Transportation Vision Task Force on Nov. 8. They’re against a plan to use tolls collected from the South Lawrence Trafficway to help pay for a potential project to expand the western leg of the road to four lanes. The South Lawrence Trafficway takes travelers from Interstate 70 northwest of Lawrence to Kansas Highway 10 east of Lawrence. [...]

The unfunded liability of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System declined by more than $150 million in the previous year and return on the pension fund’s investments exceeded the 7.75 percent target, officials said Monday. KPERS executive director Alan Conroy told House and Senate members of the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits that challenges remained in the system serving state employees, judges, teachers, firefighters and law enforcement officers. But the unfunded actuarial liability dropped to $8.907 billion at the end of 2017 from $9.061 billion at the close of 2016, he said. Members of the joint committee, including Rep. [...]