Senate Republicans plan to introduce a transportation bill as early as Wednesday afternoon to put $300 million a year into the state’s highway system without asking voters for  a tax hike, Colorado Politics has confirmed.

The much-anticipated, much-negotiated House Bill 1242 died on a party-line vote Tuesday evening when Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee sided against it over a proposed 0.50 tax hike to raise billions for the state’s highways and  bridges, transit and local government transportation needs.

One of those GOP senators. Tim Neville of Littleton, is a co-sponsoring the proposed bill with John Cooke of Greeley.

Cooke said the bill would take 10 percent of the existing sales tax revenue. Democrats in the House aren’t likely to buy the deal, however, with just two weeks left in the session.

“We can find some savings,” Cooke said Wednesday morning. “We’re not going to take money away from schools. We’re not going to take money away from prisons. What it’s going to do is we have to prioritize.”

Cooke is hopeful he can get the bill out of the Senate, and he expects it will be heavily amended in the House, if it can pass at all. That would force Democrats to the bargaining table in a conference committee, keeping hopes alive for a legislative remedy before the May 10 adjournment.

“Basically, some of these other bills let’s us off the hook,” he said of proposals that took only some or no money from the state budget.

“Taxpayers want us to do our job, which is to prioritize the budget,” he said.

Some of the projects at stake include widening Interstate 25 from Castle Rock to   Monument and from Denver to Fort Collins, as well as address routine traffic jams on the I-70 mountain corridor.

If nothing passes, several groups plan to collect petition signatures to get a tax hike on the ballot in November.

The proposed bill is exactly what House Republicans have wanted from the start of the session.

“Voters are expecting action; now is the time for lawmakers to sidestep the challenges that blocked HB-1242,” said Sandra Hagen Solin of Fix Colorado Roads, the statewide coalition of business groups that has been pushing for a road-funding fix for years. “With two weeks to go, we are pleased to see an alternative proposal introduced so quickly.

“However, just as we highlighted during the debate on 1242, a solution must present a balanced approach that factors the philosophical differences of both parties and the expectations and preferences of the voters for it to be politically and viable. As it will be introduced, the new bill will need to be further refined so it can pass divided chambers as well as win over voters.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected to note Sen. Tim Neville is from Littleton, not Castle Rock. (State Rep. Patrick Neville, his son, is from Castle Rock.)