Topeka ? A $20 million lease-purchase contract negotiated by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration for a new Capitol Complex power plant in Topeka is drawing criticism from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

House and Senate members said Wednesday that the deal was worth millions more than originally expected, done without legislative oversight and that the first payment of the 15-year contract was not included in the budget proposal Brownback submitted this month, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said the lease involved “off-budget appropriations” and the administration was not required to include the payments in the proposal.

Other lawmakers who are opposed to the Kansas Department of Administration’s plan to tear down the Docking building, where the current plant is housed, said the financial agreement with Bank of America virtually assured the building would be demolished. The new power plant would be one block north of the Capitol.

Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, said the contract negotiated by the Kansas Development Finance Authority on behalf of the administration department was “clearly something that wasn’t vetted by the Legislature.”

Brownback and lawmakers are trying to address an estimated $190 million deficit during the next 18 months.

Lawmakers were originally told the new plant would cost $9 million, and that estimate went up to $12 million in October. Under the new agreement, Bank of America will finance construction of the power unit for $16.4 million, with annual payments of $1.32 million annually through 2031, for a total of $19.92 million.

Department of Administration spokesman John Milburn said the governor’s office and budget director Shawn Sullivan were consulted during the lease process. The lease debt will be repaid from rent from state buildings in the Capitol complex, along with utility savings and “cost avoidance” for operating Docking, he said.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka has asked the Kansas Legislative Research Department for an opinion on whether the deal was legal.

“If, in fact, they were not legally authorized then somebody needs to be held accountable,” Hensley said.

KDFA senior vice president Jim MacMurray said state law allowed the acting secretary of the Department of Administration to sign the contract and that it wasn’t unusual for the department to lease buildings. The state received four bids on the project and the lease option, which he said was “probably not the usual route,” required far less public disclosure than if the state had issued bonds to build the power plant.

Rep. Mark Hutton, a Wichita Republican on the joint building committee, said the Department of Administration was asked to conduct a feasibility study on whether to proceed with demolition or keep the current power facility and lower floors of Docking. He assumed the agency would return to legislators before signing a contract.

“They circumvented the appropriations process,” Hutton said. “I think it’s atrocious.”