Topeka ? A Senate committee on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of former Rep. Richard Carlson to be the next Kansas Secretary of Transportation after defending himself against charges that he is largely responsible for a tax plan enacted in 2012 that has resulted in more than $1 billion being swept out of the state highway program.

Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, made that charge during a confirmation hearing. He said Carlson, who chaired the House Taxation Committee in 2012, was one of the leading architects of a tax plan that has resulted in severe budget shortfalls for the state, prompting raids on the state highway fund to shore up the state general fund.

“I just can’t in good conscience, or as a practical matter, support this confirmation when Mr. Carlson really led the effort in the House to pass a plan that has really decimated the Department of Transportation and the highway fund,” Hensley said. “And I just don’t believe we should put him in a position of leading an agency that, as a result of the tax plan, was basically devastated.”

Former Rep. Richard Carlson speaks to the Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee about his nomination to be Kansas Secretary of Transportation.

The controversial tax plan enacted in 2012 dramatically reduced income tax rates in Kansas and eliminated taxes altogether for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners.

Those tax cuts resulted in a huge drop in revenue for the state, and many experts say they failed to produce the kind of economic stimulus that Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies had promised. The result has been a series of budget shortfalls, and an estimated $1.3 billion being swept out of the highway fund to make up for shortages in the state general fund.

But the other five members of the confirmation panel, all Republicans, endorsed Carlson for the job.

“Not that I want to turn this into a tax debate, but clearly that’s the opinion of one person from the party that thinks the answer to everything is to take more from the people and spend as much as you can,” said Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover.

Masterson also denied that the Department of Transportation has been hampered by the sweeping of state sales tax revenue out of the highway fund because the agency takes in roughly $1 billion a year in dedicated revenue through state and federal motor fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees.

“Honestly, Mr. Carlson’s views on tax don’t inform me one lick of whether I’m going to support his confirmation or not,” said Senate Vice President Jeff King of Independence. “I represent a district with two of the three most dangerous stretches of road in the state. We can argue about why we have the difficulties in transportation funding that we have now, but the fact is we have them, and whoever the secretary is is going to have to take care of those.”

The panel voted to endorse Carlson on a vote of 5-1. The others voting in favor were Sens. Terry Bruce of Hutchinson, Susan Wagle of Wichita and Rob Olson of Olathe.

Last month, KDOT announced that due to funding uncertainty, it was delaying 24 projects, estimated at about $32 million, that were supposed to be let out for bids in December.

But speaking with reporters after the hearing, Carlson said that was not unusual, and he denied there was any link between the tax plan he helped craft as a legislator and the recent sweeps out of the highway program.

“Highway fund sweeping has been done by governors of both parties over a period of years,” he said. “The thing I would like to stress is that we do have dedicated funding that goes to the Department of Transportation, and that’s over $900 million a year.”

Carlson has been serving as interim secretary since October when he was named to succeed Mike King, who retired. His nomination now goes to the full Senate, which convenes Jan. 9.

The committee also unanimously endorsed two other Brownback cabinet appointments: Tim Keck as Secretary of the Department on Aging and Disability Services; and Joseph Norwood as Secretary of Corrections.

Keck’s appointment has been somewhat controversial because he was named interim secretary in January 2016 and was not officially nominated for the permanent job until Aug. 1, the day before primary elections for the Legislature.

Sen. King noted that under state law, interim appointments are not supposed to last longer than six months, but Keck had been on the job for nearly a year before ever appearing in front of the Confirmation Oversight Committee.

But Sen. Bruce, who chairs the panel, said the delay was largely caused by a backlog at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which conducts background checks on nominees in advance of confirmation hearings, and because lawmakers themselves were busy with elections this fall.

For Bruce and King, Tuesday’s confirmation hearings will likely be their last official acts as legislators. Bruce was defeated for re-election in the Aug. 2 primary, and King chose not to run for re-election this year.