Topeka ? Kansas Department of Transportation Secretary Mike King on Tuesday said he had no specifics on how the state would save $30 million over the next two years by taking over the Kansas Turnpike Authority.

Gov. Sam Brownback has called for KDOT to assume authority over the daily operations of the 236-mile turnpike, although the KTA would remain in existence.

In his budget proposal, Brownback has built in savings of $15 million for each of the next two fiscal years that will result “from greater cooperation between the two agencies.”

On Tuesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s ranking minority member, Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, asked King about those savings.

King said he had no list of specific items that would produce those savings.

Kelly asked if the $30 million figure was just an arbitrary number.

King said if the Legislature wants KDOT to find those savings, it will. He said it was probable that most of those savings would come from efficiencies in KDOT rather than the KTA.