Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday she was shuffling her Cabinet as her administration works on proposals to increase education spending and tackle rising health-care costs.

Lt. Gov. John Moore plans to step down Wednesday as secretary of commerce. Sebelius said Moore would become heavily involved in education and health-care policy, though his exact role hasn’t been defined.

Secretary of Administration Howard Fricke will take over for Moore at the Department of Commerce.

State Budget Director Duane Goossen will become secretary of administration, while still keeping the budget director’s responsibilities.

“We really needed to realign the talent,” Sebelius said during a news conference. “What we’re doing, really, is sort of reassigning talent.”

But after Sebelius’ announcement, House Speaker Doug Mays interpreted Moore’s new assignments as “a reduced role.”

“I’m disappointed,” Mays, R-Topeka, said during an interview. “We had a great working relationship with John Moore as commerce secretary, and we’ll miss him.”

Sebelius’ spokeswoman replied that the change actually represents a larger role for Moore within the administration as it works on policy initiatives.

Sebelius gave few details about the initiatives upon which her administration is working. She said she planned a major health-care proposal for the 2005 Legislature, convening in January.

“The affordability, availability and quality of health care are the three concerns for Kansas families, Kansas business owners, farmers and ranchers, elderly Kansans,” she said. “It hits at all levels.”

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, flanked by Secretary of Administration Howard Fricke, left, Lt. Gov. and Secretary of Commerce John Moore, and Budget Director Duane Goossen, right, announces a change in leadership roles during a news conference. The realignment, announced Thursday in Topeka, involves Fricke, Moore and Goossen.

On education, Sebelius this year proposed raising sales, income and property taxes to phase in a $304 million increase in education funding over three years. Legislators rejected her plan and failed to approve any alternative proposal.

Sebelius said she planned to wait until the Kansas Supreme Court rules on a case involving public school funding to formulate a proposal but added that her package would include “some extra initiatives” addressing early-childhood education, higher education and vocational training.

Mays said that if Sebelius wanted to have some success with both initiatives, she needed to bring legislative leaders into discussions before the start of the 2005 session. He said he did not know Sebelius was working on a health-care plan.

Sebelius said she had been talking about a health care initiative for months, but Mays said, “To whom? Not to us. I have not heard a peep.”

As for Moore’s exact role in drafting the two major initiatives, Sebelius said: “We’re really in the process of making this transformation right now, so I can’t describe to you, in two months, what all the pieces of the puzzle are going to look like.”

Sebelius said Moore would continue to serve on a council working to ensure that Kansas maintains its military installations through another round of base closings by the federal government. Also, Moore will retain a place on a council studying energy policy.

Moore told reporters: “It’s a plateful, but it’s one I’m really looking forward to.”

Sebelius said giving Moore new responsibilities required a change at the Department of Commerce. She said she wanted to have a secretary who could concentrate full time on economic development, and that led her to pick Fricke.