Thursday morning’s response came in as expected: surprised, a little angry, accusatory, exasperated. The words were House Assistant Minority Leader Cole Wist’s.

“Speaker Duran’s call for more taxpayer revenue without any offsetting tax reductions is a complete departure from constructive conversations with Republicans and shows she and the Democrats have given up on a fiscally responsible solution to transportation funding,” Wist was quoted to say in a House Republican statement. “On Day One, she called for a ‘bipartisan consensus on a statewide transportation plan,’ yet her comments yesterday severely jeopardized transportation negotiations, and shows Democrats are unwilling to prioritize Colorado’s continually increasing revenue for its most pressing needs.”

Wist, a Republican from Centennial, was referring to comments made on Wednesday by Duran, a Denver Democrat, in a meeting with the press. She set the Capitol rumbling by seeming to shift the parameters of the long-ongoing conversation about transportation funding, a top priority this year.

She said she would not separate transportation spending needs from education spending needs. Any proposal that would draw from the state’s general fund for transportation, she said, would have to be made up somehow so as to keep the state’s school budget at current levels.

“What’s the point of going forward with a revenue neutral ballot issue when we have all these needs? We should try and dig deeper,” she said.

Duran also revived the specter of another round of negotiation around the state’s hospital provider fee. Democrats propose reclassifying it as an enterprise fund, an accounting move that would deliver millions into the general fund for discretionary spending – including on transportation and education programs.

The idea brought veins to the surface on Republican necks.

“Duran indicated that the highly controversial maneuver of reclassifying the Hospital Provider Fee and using new tax revenue for education should both be in consideration – two issues Republicans adamantly oppose,” read the House GOP release.

– john@coloradostatesman.com