A transportation bill dealing with how $15 million in funding is allocated is closely tied to the main battle underway at the Capitol this year over the budget. The bill, sponsored by influential Republican Sen. Tim Neville, a candidate for U.S. Senate this year, offers a conservative policy alternative to a plan being pushed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to land more money in the state’s general fund to be spent on basic services, like transportation.

Neville’s Senate Bill 11 passed out of the Transportation Committee on a 3-2 party-line vote on Tuesday and headed straight to the Senate for a second-reading scheduled for Friday.

The bill would bar $15 million now set aside through the 2009 FASTER Act from being used for mass-transit projects, like expanding rail and bus lines, and for other “alternative” projects like building bicycle and pedestrian paths.

FASTER collects $200 million a year from various vehicle registration fees. The money is meant to support relatively quick-turn-around road and bridge maintenance and other projects. The fees also fund several regional transportation grants.

“This is a tax masquerading as a fee,” Neville told The Colorado Statesman, adding that funding transit through driver fees does not exactly deliver a great return on investment for drivers. He thinks the $15 million should be used for road-safety projects.

Transportation Committee member Sen. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, disagreed with Neville. She pointed to witnesses who testified that the bill would eliminate money needed to continue running public transportation that serves rural residents and disabled residents who live in every corner of the state.

“Mobility is a form of freedom,” she said. “I was disappointed that my Republican colleagues would put this freedom of movement at risk. Many of my constituents literally can’t drive, so they depend on transit to reach vital destinations, like their doctor’s offices or their loved ones’ homes.

“Colorado is becoming known worldwide for the progress we’ve made with transit,” she said. “It’s a shame Republicans would consider moving backward with a bill like this.”

The Colorado Department of Transportation also opposes the bill.

Andy Karsian, CDOT state government liaison, testified that cutting $15 million would effectively disband the agency’s 10-person Division of Transit and Rail, eliminate nearly $6 million in regional grants, and defund Bustang — the CDOT project to help alleviate congestion that sees buses travel from Denver north to Fort Collins, south to Colorado Springs and west to Glenwood.

Neville said he doesn’t oppose any of the transit programs receiving the FASTER money. He said he simply opposes the source of funding.

“It’s an added level of bureaucracy,” he said.

Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol are engaged in a messaging tug-of-war over a proposal being pushed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to shift money generated by the state’s hospital provider fee out of the general fund so that TABOR spending caps would kick in later, freeing up hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on underfunded basics — like transportation.

Democrats argue the proposal is an overdue accounting fix. Republicans call it unconstitutional gamesmanship.

Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, has argued that education and transportation funding has been spent on Medicaid expansions. He has led Republicans in making the case that lawmakers in Denver for years have embraced bad spending priorities.

Neville’s bill focuses that argument on FASTER.

“There are some things the state needs to answer for prior to the Legislature raising taxes on the hard-working people of Colorado for transportation,” wrote Rep. Clarice Navarro, R-Pueblo, in a letter published last week at The Denver Post. Navarro is a strong supporter of the Neville bill.

“I’ll go out on a limb and say that the majority of the people that I represent are not interested in spending $100 million on bike trails,” she added.

“FASTER is going to be contentious this session,” she told The Statesman.

State auditors in November reported that CDOT could not account for nearly $6 million in FASTER fees, some projects did not meet legislative standards, bridge projects were over budget and the selection process for projects were not “thorough, integrated and strategic.”

CDOT has said that all the auditor recommendations regarding FASTER will be met by July.

In her editorial, Navarro blasted Hickenlooper’s $100 million plan to make Colorado “the best state for bicycling” as bad budget management, even though auditors reported that no future bike trail projects are diverting funds from road projects.

“These are existing projects funded primarily through federal programs intended to build bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure,” the report said.

“I’ll be watching (Neville’s) bill carefully,” Navarro said. “The bottom line is this: Fees collected on vehicles should go to projects used by vehicles.”

It’s unclear whether Republicans in the Senate will hold a vote on the bill Friday. Republicans control the chamber by only one vote, and Senate President Cadman was absent Wednesday and Thursday.

— kara@coloradostatesman.com