The Colorado Senate considered a bill to beef up funding for transportation without raising taxes Wednesday, but it bogged down in amendments about where the money would go, as well as delivering a tacit protest of the bill’s sponsor.

Senate Bill 1 would ask voters in November to set aside more than $300 million a year in existing sales taxes and fees to repay more than $3.5 billion in loans to jump-start major projects, especially widening Interstate 25 north of Monument and Denver, as well as the I-70 mountain corridor.

“There is no greater unmet need in the state of Colorado in terms of growing our statewide economy to benefit everyone,” said Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, one of the bill’s sponsors.

He cited the state’s growing budget, including a boost from the federal tax cuts passed by Republicans in Congress, which granted across-the-board tax cuts while doing about with tax breaks that the state will now be able to collect on.

“It leaves almost another billion dollars in money we can appropriate for other projects or for transportation,” he said.

After almost four hours of floor debate Wednesday, the bill never reached a preliminary voice vote. If it passes the Senate on a recorded vote in the next few days, the Democratic majority in the House is waiting with many amendments, if it not an outright rejection of the proposal.

The long debate Wednesday – including a lot of conversations that didn’t appear to have much to do with the bill itself – wasn’t only about the fact that Senate Democrats don’t like the bill. They don’t like the sponsor, either.

Sen. Lois Court, D-Denver, told Colorado Politics that while the Democrats’ fussing is primarily about the bill and their disagreement about how to fund transportation, there’s an “underlying undercurrent” that applies to Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs.

Senate Democrats have been speaking on the floor daily for Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, to allow a resolution to expel Baumgardner over allegations that he sexually harassed a legislative aide in 2016. Baumgardner denies the charge, but he voluntarily resigned his chairmanship of the Senate Transportation Committee last month after a report from the Employers Council reportedly called him accuser more credible than him.

Democrats argued Wednesday that the bill would steer money to the Front Range and doesn’t guarantee anything for rural communities, local governments or transit. Dividing up the money would  be left to the state Transportation Commission to decide. They argued Tuesday to guarantee at least one project in each of the state’s five transportation districts.

Sen. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, spoke of the years he lived on the Western Slope.

“Folks on the Western Slope don’t feel the highway commission has been fair to them,” he said. “Also, folks from Colorado Springs don’t particularly feel they’ve gotten their fair share of highway taxes and projects for Colorado Springs.”

Colorado Springs has passed local taxes to support projects neglected by the state.

Democrats, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, aren’t likely to go along with Senate Bill 1. By committing such a chunk of  the budget to transportation loans would make it hard for the state to fund schools and other services during economically lean times.

Hickenlooper has proposed putting $148.2 million into transportation next year and future amounts to be determined based on revenue forecasts.

“It’s not like we’re not ever going to have another recession,” Hickenlooper told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re gong to have a recession, probably, in the not-too-distant future. And if we go out take revenues from the general fund and commit them to paying for transportation, we put all the other things the state does at risk.”

Sen. Matt Jones. D-Louisville, summarized on the Senate floor Wednesday, “What we’re saying is asphalt is more important than kids, and I just don’t believe that.”

Democrats in the Senate pecked away a the technical aspects of Senate Bill 1 Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, grew impatient about the well-worn Colorado transportation debate. He said the bill is about new dollars coming into the budget.

“It’s time we get roads and bridges actually built instead of just talk, talk, talking about possibly building roads and bridges maybe sometime before we all die,” he said.