Senate President Kevin Grantham weighed in on the governor’s budget requests Thursday, even though Gov. John Hickenlooper hasn’t yet presented them the legislature budget writers, the Joint Budget Committee. That’ll happen later this month.

Grantham, a Republican from Canon City, said the “most obvious problem” was the governor’s failure to carve out any money from the state’s General Fund to speed up the pace of addressing a backlog of transportation needs, including widening Interstate 25 between Monument and Castle Rock, as well as between Denver and Fort Collins. The I-70 mountain corridor routinely turns into a parking lot on snow days.

Colorado Politics told you Wednesday that Hickenlooper’s proposed $30.5 billion budget asked for no meaningful additional money from next year’s state budget for roads, bridges and transit.

Grantham was the Senate sponsor of House Bill 1242 with Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran last session. As the bill was introduced, it took nothing from the General Fund and would have asked voters to approve a 0.62 cent sales tax. After the bill passed the House, the Senate Transportation Committee lowered the sales tax to 0.5o and put $100 million a year from the General Fund, before the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee killed the legislation.

“Given all the rhetoric we’re heard in recent years about the urgent need to fix Colorado’s crumbling roads, including from this governor, I’m shocked that he couldn’t find room in a $30 billion-plus budget to devote one general fund dollar to this top budget priority,” Grantham said in a statement. “It just demonstrates, again, that Democrats will talk the talk on addressing the state’s infrastructure problems, but won’t walk the walk by putting real money where their mouths are.

“Obviously the public has no appetite for raising taxes to pay for a long-term road fix, so we must find a way to use existing funds if we want to get started on a solution. Republicans believe we can do that, and indeed must do that, even if it requires making hard choices, but Democrats obviously have other priorities and intend to keep using roads as pawns in a cynical game of fiscal chicken.”

Grantham didn’t like that Hickenlooper proposed more money for most state departments, either. Republicans agreed to Senate Bill 267, which moved a hospital provider fee out from under the state’s constitutional spending cap, with the agreement that Democrats would cut spending.

Grantham stated, “Lawmakers who approved SB-267 sent a clear bipartisan signal to the governor that they expected most state agencies to look for ways to decrease funding levels, so that we might look for offsets elsewhere in the budget if we decide to devote general fund dollars to roads and bridges, but the governor’s budget thumbs its nose at the legislature’s request and includes nearly across-the-board spending increases, indicating an unwillingness to look for ways to economize and reprioritize.”

Republicans will have plenty to say about the final budget. Hickenlooper’s proposal is a request. Though he has the final decision on signing the budget, the legislature writes, debate sand, by constitutional requirement, must pass a balanced budget. Republicans have a one-seat majority in the Senate, and Democrats have a nine-seat edge in the House.

You can read the governor’s full budget request by clicking here.