In an extended and spirited meeting with reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday, Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Denver Democrat, drew a line in the sand concerning ongoing high-stakes negotiations over how to raise desperately needed state transportation funding.

Duran said she would not separate transportation needs from equally dire education needs. Any proposal that would draw from the state’s general fund for transportation, she explained, would have to include a mechanism by which the same amount of money would be added back in so as to keep the school budget at current levels.

Transportation funding has been the top-priority issue this legislative session. For reporters following the issue closely for the last few weeks but not involved in day to day conversations, Duran’s remarks seemed a sudden turn.The effect was that now transportation funding was being tied more directly to the state’s complicated “fiscal thicket.”

Wrestling with the thicket is an annual affair in which interest groups and lawmakers tug at branches in varied directions looking to fund different priority areas. This year, transportation was supposed to be on some level placed outside the thicket. Duran seemed suddenly to have moved it back into the center.

“It is imperative with any plan that we bring forward that we don’t continue to put a Band-Aid on our fiscal situation,” she said. “We need to come up with a longterm solution to address these issues… We need to look not just at 2017 but at years down the road, so that when we bring forward a ballot initiative, we can generate enough revenue to address those longterm needs.”

To raise money for transportation, lawmakers are planning to pass a referendum asking voters to raise tax money.

“In my opinion, you get only one bite at that apple and you better do it right the first time,” said Duran.

“The other piece is this,” she added. “We are supportive of continuing to invest money into transportation, but we also can not have a conversation about funding transportation without having a real conversation about our education funding in this state.

“We want to invest in transportation but not at the expense of our kids and, at this point, we are at a critical point as it relates to education funding.”

Duran was referring to the fact that Colorado education funding is perennially low and that in lean years state budget writers routinely scrape money from the school system to fill in gaps opening elsewhere.

Duran pointed out that state constitutional amendments this year regulating taxes threaten to press down revenues to critical levels for the schools.

“We will have to reduce per pupil spending in the state by $122,” she said. “This is crucial. This is not like previous years. It’s paramount, in terms of the concerns of parents, teachers, kids and making sure that we invest in boys and girls across Colorado so that they are able to reach their full potential.”

Duran argued that the degree to which Coloradans have passed local tax raises to support schools and safety and public infrastructure projects demonstrates a will to pay for school funding on the state level.

But Republican leaders this year have said they’re not willing to ask voters to raise taxes without demonstrating to them that spending priorities have been adjusted at the Capitol, mainly by supplementing whatever transportation money is raised at the ballot box with general fund money.

Duran said new and alternative proposals should be discussed. She raised the specter of again of beginning negotiations over a plan failed in years past that would reclassify the state’s hospital provider fee. She conceded it would be a temporary fix, but said new ideas around the fee were being developed.

People working on the transportation funding negotiations this year have been growing nervous as days progress and conversations around the session’s top priority issue bubble up or dip underground. There is a feeling palpable in the building that a critical turn may be lying just ahead on the road to a deal. Tension shot up almost immediately as news of the press meeting with Duran moved from hallways, through staircases and into lobbies and offices.

Reporters phones began buzzing as they prepared to write stories. Lobbyists and staffers called looking for clarity on the Speaker’s comments or details on the emerging narrative that they could help spin.

A letter addressed to political leaders that had been in the works for days arrived an hour after the meeting from Chambers of Commerce and economic development organizations. It encouraged leaders to stay positive and resolute.

“The status quo threatens the vibrancy of our economy, our attractiveness as a destination for business and tourism and our quality of life,” it read. “Failure to address the challenge before us is no longer an option.”

– john@coloradostatesman.com