TOPEKA| Kansas House Republican House leadership is coming under siege today for using money targeted for roads to pay for its plan to lower state income taxes.

Critics charge that GOP leadership's tax plan will cost the state's highway system more than $300 million over the next two years.

The new GOP leadership tax plan caps sales tax proceeds for transportation at $320 million for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 before allowing it to zoom up to more than $530 million in 2016.

The increases in funding were to come from a four-tenths of a cent sales tax that was supposed to start flowing to transportation in 2013. It would have brought the state $480 million in 2014 and $512 million in 2015.

The money was to go toward a $8.2 billion, 10-year highway program that includes fixing serious congestion problems at the interchange of I-435, Kansas 10 and I-35 on the Olathe/Lenexa border.

The program also calls for building a new highway loop around the southeast side of Lawrence and building a new interchange at K-7 and I-35 in Wyandotte County.

“The transportation plan that passed the House in 2010 is the largest jobs package in Kansas history,” House Democratic Leader Paul Davis, Lawrence said in a statement today.

"It is wrong for House Republicans to propose eliminating those jobs at a time when over 50,000 Kansans are desperate to find work.”

House Republican leadership released a collective response tonight.

"The Legislature is now taking a hard look at ways to ensure Kansans keep as much of their money as possible and reinvest in the state economy promoting growth," the group said in its statement.

"This plan allows Kansas to continue to invest in quality roads while putting money back into the pockets of hardworking Kansans," the group said.

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