The Colorado Senate’s majority Republicans are pitching upgrades to the information superhighway – as well as to plain-old paved highways – as a boon to rural Colorado.

A press announcement touting the legislation said both proposals – the first two Senate bills introduced on opening day Wednesday – demonstrated a “commitment to assisting parts of rural Colorado that often feel left behind by the boom times enjoyed by the urbanized Front Range.”

The announcement said Senate Bill 1, “is a tax hike-free roadway modernization package that also could have broad economic benefits, if approved by voters next fall.”

Senate Bill 2’s provisions boosting rural broadband – a complicated measure Colorado Politics’s Marianne Goodland covers in greater depth – is intended to help bridge the digital divide.

SB 2 author Don Coram, a Montrose Republican, had this to say about both measures’ impact on farm-and-ranch-and-wide-open-spaces districts like his:

“In tandem, our first two bills of the session are meant to provide a double shot of economic assistance to rural parts of the state that often lag behind economically … It’s our way of helping to bridge the urban-rural divide so that every part of the state prospers.”