Two groundbreaking Republican proposals that aim to ease gridlock on the state's congested highways while assuring a sustainable source of funding in the future passed the Senate Transportation Committee today with support from both parties.

Senate Bill 213, introduced in the upper chamber by Senate GOP leader Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, would toll motorists along a chronically clogged portion of Interstate 70 west of Denver to pay for expanding the highway's capacity. The Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce supports the proposal, underscoring how that stretch of the aging interstate is a notorious chokepoint in the state's traffic flow and a major impediment to Colorado commerce.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 2, also introduced by McElhany, would ask voters to secure all revenue from auto-related sales and use taxes in the state constitution so the money only could be used on transportation.

The measures advanced in the absence so far of any significant transportation proposals from the administration of Gov. Bill Ritter despite a year of study by a commission the governor appointed to look into transporation.

"Colorado cannot afford to do nothing," McElhany said after the committee vote. "Some of our state's major traffic arteries are too often in gridlock, and that is like a ball and chain on our economy."

Amid a firestorm of debate over the drafting of new rules governing the energy industry, three lawmakers representing energy-rich southern Colorado have joined forces with a political advocacy group representing the interests of farm and ranch counties to demand a seat at the negotiation table.

Republican Sen. Ken Kester, of Las Animas, partnered with Democrat Sens. Abel Tapia, of Pueblo, and Gail Schwartz, of Snowmass Village, to urge the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to include representatives from southeastern Colorado in their discussion of the new rules currently being written.  The rules will dictate how the energy industry can conduct business across the state. 

"It's just wrong to not to include the communities most affected by these rules," Kester said. "This commission has the potential to affect the livelihood and well-being of many great citizens in southern Colorado."