Leading Republicans urged ruling Democrats today not to count on hard-pressed taxpayers for more transportation funding anytime soon--and instead adopt innovative alternatives to higher taxes and fees.

The lawmakers were responding to news this week of survey results that continue to show the public isn't interested in paying more for transportation despite bottlenecked traffic arteries and a backlog of highway upgrades around the state.  As reported in today's Rocky Mountain News, a survey by the group Move Colorado showed that while voters are beginning to see transportation as a more pressing issue, they aren't ready yet to raise taxes. The findings mirror those of previous surveys that show little public appetite for tax or registration-fee hikes to upgrade the transportation grid. 

Republicans say the latest round of public feedback should come as no surprise. 

"By now, you would think everyone at the Capitol would be tired of driving transportation policy down the same dead-end road of seeking one-size-fits-all tax increases," said the GOP's Sen. Josh Penry, of Grand Junction. "We're heading into a recession, and taxpayers are strapped."

Move Colorado's survey findings were disclosed at a hearing Tuesday at the Capitol as state transportation officials briefed the Transportation Legislative Review Committee about plummeting highway revenue. Although the dismal fiscal forecast renewed calls in some quarters for lobbying the public to provide more funding, statehouse Republicans said it is time for a new approach altogether.

"No matter what your poll says, I don't think the people of Colorado are stupid," Rep. Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said at the Tuesday hearing. "I don't think we need to look at this as 'The people of Colorado need to be educated on this topic,' because I don't think they do." 

Other Republicans echoed that sentiment.

"Let's shift tack, make highway funding a priority in the budget and also embrace some innovative approaches to get the needed funding," said Penry. "Isn't that what the public sent us here to do?"

Littleton Republican Sen. Mike Kopp said it is a mistake to equate the public's unwillingness to pay more taxes with ignorance about the issue.

“What Democrats do not seem to understand is that voters do get it," Kopp said. "They know the state has neglected investing in its highway infrastructure so that it could instead pour money into growing entitlement programs."

Added Kopp, "They are fed up with business as usual around the Capitol, and they expect us to set priorities for a change.”

Senate GOP chief Andy McElhany, of Colorado Springs, noted that Republicans offered

proposals during the 2007 legislative session that would have done exactly that--making transportation a top budget priority--without leaning harder on the public to pay for it. Among those proposals was a referendum--defeated by legislative Democrats--that would have asked voters to protect transportation-related sales tax revenue in the state constitution so lawmakers no longer could divert it to other programs. McElhany also waved off calls for further educating the public.

“Will education include reminding voters that this General Assembly has siphoned $240 million out of transportation for other government programs over the past couple of years?”  he said. “The problem for the tax-and-fee hikers is that the public already has too much education. They know what’s going on.”