We recently gave legislative Republicans an editorial nudge toward the deal-making table at the State Capitol. We hope they’ll play a key role in hammering out a realistic plan to fund transportation – meaning, highways.

We pointed out that even though Republicans are the minority in both legislative chambers and don’t hold the Governor’s Office, they could wield more clout than some might realize. That is because when it comes to highways, much of the motoring public as well as the biggest sectors of our state’s economy want what the Republicans want. They want the state to repair, upgrade and expand Colorado’s highways, roads and bridges. They are tired of sitting in gridlock and risking their safety. We believe the GOP could leverage that sentiment in reaching a bipartisan accord.

As the Republicans know well, lawmaking almost always involves a degree of compromise, especially for the minority. So, we also urged them not to leave the table if they don’t like the initial draft of the transportation plan that will be introduced by Democrats. It will be just the first hand dealt in the game. The real action starts after that if you play your cards right.

And now for the Democrats. Sure, they could pass their own transportation plan without the GOP – but also without the public’s support. The challenge for the party now in charge at the legislature is that too many of its members simply are not in the same lane as the motoring public or the key industries in our state’s economy when it comes to highways. There is a subtle sensibility within the ruling party that disdains private passenger cars and views them as a fixture of the past. And it reinforces another, far more prominent inclination – to shove highways to the end of the line for funding.

Which explains the stinginess of the pending Democratic transportation plan toward highways. An enlightening report by our news affiliate Colorado Politics highlighted how, as of now, Democrats don’t anticipate investing any of the state’s $31 billion budget in highways. You read that right – they’ll introduce a “transportation” bill that doesn’t provide any money from the state general fund for Colorado’s main mode of transportation. Instead, Democrats hope to enact a new fee on motorists atop the dwindling returns highways currently receive from the gas tax through the Highway User’s Tax Fund.

One of the Democrats who will carry the bill when the COVID-stalled 2021 legislature reconvenes, state Rep. Matt Gray of Broomfield, dismissed appeals from the highway advocacy coalition A Way Forward for the legislature to chip in $250 million a year from the general fund.

That amount would be only half of an estimated $500 million needed annually to address a multibillion-dollar backlog of road and bridge projects. The other half, in that scenario, would be covered by new revenue out of motorists’ pockets through the new fee. Yet, Gray doesn’t want to pick up even half the tab.

“We told this to the folks in the A Way Forward … $250 million from the general fund on an ongoing commitment isn’t sustainable based on the fact that that would take away from public education, health care and human services and criminal justice reform,” Gray told Colorado Politics.

Incredibly – even as Colorado’s highway infrastructure crumbles – Gray and co-sponsoring state Rep. Faith Winter of Westminster also foresee some of the money raised through the new vehicle fee going to the likes of charging stations for electric cars, more public transit and rail project along the Front Range.

Yet, they don’t want want to spend the state’s current budget on vital public infrastructure like highways.

It will be interesting to see how Gray and Winter explain those priorities to their Broomfield and Westminster constituents who are perennially paralyzed by gridlock on their morning commute and in their attempts at weekend getaways.

Let them explain which “criminal justice reform” and human services proposals are more pressing than making our essential transportation corridors safe and navigable. Let them explain to those same constituents why they’ll pay an additional levy at the pump in part to subsidize buses, trains and the like. And why none of what motorists already pay into the state general fund will pay for the highways most of us rely on.

If the ruling party doesn’t intend to heed the public on this, here’s a chance for Republicans to make the case. If they show a willingness to be flexible, they could win formidable allies – and get the majority to bend and at last put some skin in the game.