State Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, says he’s inclined to vote against the bipartisan transportation funding package introduced last week because residents of Adams County and other north metro areas are “tired of getting (the) short end” on road and transit projects.

Citing a long list of slights, Lebsock said in a series of tweets and text messages exchanged with The Colorado Statesman that his constituents are angry about years of neglect and having to take the back seat to other parts of town when it comes to transportation improvements.

“North metro area citizens tired of getting short end. I will probably be a no vote,” Lebsock tweeted the day after the introduction last week of House Bill 1242, which would ask voters to approve a $677 million sales tax hike to pay for transportation needs statewide.

Republican lawmakers have been elbowing each other out of the way to denounce the proposal even though the Republican Senate leader and a key GOP committee chairman are among the bill’s initial sponsors. Lebsock is the first Democrat so far to suggest he might not support the measure, which requires a majority vote out of both chambers and the governor’s signature to send the question to voters.

The bill’s initial sponsors are House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, and the chairs of both chambers’ transportation committees, state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat Springs, and state Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs.

In the tweet sent Thursday, Lebsock pointed to controversy over a high-occupancy vehicle lane on Interstate 25 on the north side of town and the state transportation department’s record funding interchange construction on north I-25.

“Colorado citizens are tired of government bureaucrats and politicians making promises, breaking promises, then sticking the people with the bill,” Lebsock told The Statesman this week.

In a series of tweets posted in late January, Lebsock said the the “‘mood’ in Adams County” differs greatly from the “political mood at the Capitol” when it comes to supporting tax hikes for road construction.

Then he ticked off several instances where he contends north-metro residents have gotten the shaft, including a change from an HOV lane requiring two passengers to one requiring three passengers, Thornton and Westminster having to pay for interchange construction on I-25 at 136th and 144th avenues and a Thornton rail line “still not funded” after it was included in a package of voter-approved RTD transit projects.

“The previous tweets are the ‘mood’ and response from Adams County citizens when I ask them if they are willing to consider tax increase,” Lebsock summarized.

While he cautioned early in the week that House Democrats had yet to caucus about the transportation bill, Lebsock didn’t sound inclined toward getting on board.

“The state government gave the people of Colorado the middle finger when (the Colorado Department of Transportation) gave the U.S. 36 contract to a company based outside the USA,” he told The Statesman in a text message. “That wasn’t good enough, so CDOT stuck it to the people again and forced HOV-3 on I-25.”

The bill has its first scheduled hearing before the House Transportation and Energy Committee on Wednesday, March 22. Sponsors insist the legislation, unveiled after months of closed-door negotiations, is just a first step and could change substantially before a referendum reaches voters in November.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com