Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl on Thursday unveiled a plan to spend billions on improving and expanding roads across Colorado while rolling back state spending on other forms of transportation.

Flanked by Republican state lawmakers and supporters, Ganahl said she wants to ask voters to convert a package of transportation-related fees signed into law last year by Gov. Jared Polis into taxes to provide a portion of the $10 billion she proposes spending over a decade.

Her plan also relies on matching funds from the state’s general fund and an aggressive approach to public-private partnerships, which typically result in toll lanes to fund highway expansion.

Democrats dismissed Ganahl’s proposal as a half-baked “wish list” of projects that are mostly already underway.

“I’ve seen first-hand how broken our transportation system is,” Ganahl said at a press conference near the Colorado Department of Transportation headquarters in Denver. “Our roads are not safe or well-maintained, and hardworking Coloradans sit on congested highways, just like this morning, wasting both their time and hard-earned money.”

Ganahl said her plan will address environmental concerns by reducing the time Colorado drivers spend stuck in traffic, wasting an estimated 100 million gallons of gasoline a year, according to a CDOT estimate.

“Jared Polis’ vision for Colorado transportation is a nightmare,” she said. “He wants you to ride an electric bus everywhere, which is just not feasible for most Coloradans.”

Added Ganahl: “Jared Polis is stealing one of our basic freedoms. Driving gives you the freedom to go where you want, when you want.”

Ganahl criticized the Polis-appointed Colorado Transportation Commission, which voted unanimously shortly after Ganahl spoke to approve changes to the state’s 10-year list of project priorities by cutting plans to widen some major highways, including a stretch of Interstate 25 through central Denver.

Under the revised set of priorities – intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accord with a 2019 climate law signed by Polis – the state plans to accelerate construction of dedicated bus lanes on some congested routes.

“Right now, inside that building, they’re attacking that freedom,” Ganahl said, waving toward CDOT headquarters, where commission members were meeting. “All this leads us to a need for a different plan, a common sense solution that reduces carbon emissions by alleviating traffic and helping Coloradans travel our state safety and on time.”

In order to fund her plan, Ganahl said she hopes to raise $3.5 billion over 10 years if voters OK a ballot measure to undo a 2021 transportation funding bill that created a set of fees, including at the pump and on deliveries to pay for roads, bridges, mass transit and electric vehicle charging stations, among other transportation projects.

Another $3.5 billion would have to be approved by the legislature, though Ganahl didn’t say what programs she would propose cutting in order to free up the funds.

Noting that the figure amounts to about 3% of the state’s general fund, Ganahl said: “I’m confident that the General Assembly can find that room in the existing budget, let alone as we work to shrink the size of government and bureaucracy and find waste and fraud. This funding will be a priority of my administration. If the people of Colorado are going to approve the funding from the voters, the General Assembly must meet the people halfway.”

Her plan also includes $3 billion in private funding, which former CDOT executive Johnny Olson, a Ganahl supporter, said is available for the types of projects Ganahl is proposing.

Ganahl said her transportation plan doesn’t include any new taxes, though the ballot measure she described would ask voters to convert the 2021 law’s schedule of fees into taxes set to expire after 10 years.

Campaign staffers said she intends to get the measure on the ballot by petition, since at least one chamber of the legislature is likely to remain in Democratic control, reducing the likelihood lawmakers would send the question to voters by referendum.

Although Ganahl initially said she plans to ask voters to approve the funding plan in 2024, a campaign spokeswoman later said the measure will likely go to the ballot next year.

While Colorado voters have rejected transportation funding measures in recent elections by wide margins, Ganahl’s campaign said she’s confident she can rally support, in part by listing the projects that will be built.

On the list released by her campaign: $3 billion to build bus rapid transit and toll lanes from Castle Rock to Fort Collins on I-25, $1 billion for a rural pavement program, $1 billion directed to Interstate 70 in the mountains, and $1 billion distributed to cities and counties for local projects.

A spokeswoman for Polis’ campaign declined to comment. The Colorado Democratic Party called Ganahl’s plan “a collection of vague transportation ideas” that don’t add up.

“Heidi’s first plan is more like a wish list … of things the governor is already doing,” party spokeswoman Kailee Stiles said.