Republicans dislike a plan to hike vehicle-registration fees $41.

Democrats dislike the fact Colorado can grow its budget only 6 percent annually.

So the GOP offered a deal Friday.

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said the GOP would support lifting the 6 percent budget cap if Dems call off the vehicle-fee hike.

Republicans also would like to see a new law that would dedicate a certain percentage of the budget to roads.

The proposal came one day after Democrats muscled a bill through the Senate to raise vehicle-registration fees and make it easier to turn existing roads into toll roads. The "Faster" bill now heads to the House.

Republicans oppose such fee hikes during a recession and want to offer something to counter them, May said. His proposal also includes a ballot initiative that would end the Colorado Conservation Easement Program and send the $82 million it costs the state now to transportation instead.

"Traditionally, Republicans have said: 'Thou shalt not touch the 6 percent limit,' " May said. "The important thing (about the new proposal) is it provides a predictable and continuous revenue stream for transportation."

Rep. Joe Rice, the Littleton Democrat who will carry the Faster bill in the House, said he is intrigued by the ideas of removing the 6 percent limit and dedicating a stream of money for roads. But he plans to move ahead with the Democratic bill until Republicans offer something that brings as much as the $265 million a year his bill would generate for roads and bridges.

"That's a good mid- to long-term solution, but we still need something in the next six months," Rice said. "And I don't know how you get away from fees not being a part of that."

The 6 percent limit, known as "Arveschoug-Bird" after its authors, caps the amount of tax revenue the General Assembly can spend on areas such as education, health care and corrections each year. Any money that comes in over that limit is directed to transportation and construction projects.

That formula worked well for transportation in the boom times of the late 1990s, but with revenue growing by less than 6 percent a year now, the main funding stream for roads has dried up.

Rep. Don Marostica, a Loveland Republican who plans to run the limit-ending bill with Colorado Springs Democratic Sen. John Morse, said: "It's usefulness has run out."

A number of Republicans have argued the 6 percent law, passed in 1991, was constitutionalized as part of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in 1992. But there is a mixed set of legal opinion on that matter, and several Democrats have said they planned to run bills this year to do away with the limit.

If the trigger mechanism for funding roads were to go away, however, Republicans would want some guaranteed funding in the budget. That would come from a bill by Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, which would require 10.355 percent of the general fund revenue to go to transportation, regardless of how much money the state brings in.

Said Rice: "(The Republican proposal) is a good step forward, so maybe we're getting smarter and faster," he said.