The rating upgrade on Kansas Department of Transportation's (KDOT) bonds reflects: * A diverse and economically resilient pledged revenue stream constituted largely of motor fuel taxes; registration and license fees; and certain state sales taxes, which generated over $464.5 million in 1997, providing excellent 5.4 times (x) coverage; * Strong growth in pledged revenues, increasing 130.2% between 1989-1997; * Despite legislative actions to reduce the sales tax transfers to the state highway fund, sales tax revenues have always increased from the prior year's allocation; * Very strong legal provisions highlighted by a historical additional bonds test requiring gross revenues of the highway fund to cover maximum debt service outstanding and proposed at least 3x; * KDOT's experienced management team, which
