DENVER – Gridlock may mark the 2016 legislative session.

When the speaker of the House, a Democrat, and the president of the Senate, a Republican, kick off the 120-day General Assembly session on Wednesday, the two will likely call for their caucuses to work across party lines. But the past two weeks have indicated that may be impossible.

Colorado lawmakers have long prided themselves on being above Washington D.C.-style politics that have led to a government shutdown.

But the disagreement over the state’s budget is a fundamental one.

Democrats want to retain $212 million in mandated tax refunds to spend on education, roads and higher education.

Republicans want to refund that money to voters under Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and pay for transportation needs by borrowing billions of dollars on bonds.

When asked what she could offer Republicans to gain support her proposed budget fix, Boulder’s Democratic Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst laughed.

“Good government is one thing,” she said in an interview before Republican leaders publicly called her plan a “shell game” and a “scam.” “I don’t think that they want to see us cut higher education. They are in total agreement that we need to find some additional funds.”

Colorado Springs Republican Senate President Bill Cadman all but closed the door on a deal last week with a press conference unveiling a legal opinion that the Democrats’ plan, which was not kosher with state law.

“You can say there’s a budget crunch if you think you need more,” Cadman said in the press conference. “This year is the largest budget ever. So it’s not really a crunch … If we’re not growing something as much as we were growing it before it’s a budget cut. We don’t have a budget problem what we have are frankly some priority challenges.”

That dispute will be hard to overcome.

Gov. John Hickenlooper is proposing a large-chunk of money, roughly $750 million collected under the Hospital Provider Fee, be moved out from under the budget caps mandated by TABOR.

“The Hospital Provider Fee certainly doesn’t solve long term the state’s funding issues with the conflicts within the constitution, but at least it gives us a few years to sort through it,” Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said. “We want to look at every opportunity. My intention is to reach out to them and say what are their alternative plans. I so far haven’t seen a place where there is sufficient revenue to build the type of infrastructure that the state needs.”

The reproductive rights and anti-abortion battle will be bitter this year.

Hickenlooper’s budget proposal calls for $5 million for a program that provides long-acting reversible contraception like intrauterine devices or IUDs to low income and uninsured women.

Republicans last year successfully blocked funding for that program, and three lawmakers from Colorado Springs have pledged to bring bills that will block funding to Planned Parenthood, a women’s health clinic that also provides abortions, and to repeal a section of the Affordable Care Act that mandates insurance policies cover IUDs.

Republicans will again attempt to create a homicide charge in Colorado for unborn babies and talk about Michelle Wilkins, who lost a nearly full-term fetus when she was attacked last year and her womb cut open.

Democrats aren’t planning to bring legislation responding to a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, but the tragedy that left three people dead will certainly be a talking point.

Both parties want to tackle affordable housing, but disagree on the best way.

Republicans have tried for several years to protect developers of multi-family housing like condominiums from some construction defects lawsuits. Democrats have said there is no evidence that making it harder for homeowners to seek redress in court would increase the stock of condominiums and no guarantee those condos would be affordable.

Instead Democrats would like to increase or extend a tax credit available to developers who build affordable housing.

Lawmakers from Colorado Springs are optimistic they can traverse the partisan divide.

“It’s going to be an interesting year,” Manitou Springs Sen. Michael Merrifield, a Democrat, said. “It’s going to be a challenging year because there are going to be a lot of people thinking about their campaigns.”

Merrifield said he’s “a little optimistic, but not naively optimistic.”

In the minority in the Senate his bills aren’t likely to the light of day without Republican support.

Colorado Springs Rep. Dan Nordberg, a Republican, has the same problem only in the House.

But he too is optimistic.

“The respected parties obviously have some deep rooted disagreements over some specific issues but I think there is still room for compromise,” he said.

Colorado Springs Rep. Pete Lee, a Democrat, disagreed with the assessment that the General Assembly could face gridlock.

“That’s going to be one fight over one bill,” he said. “We are going tot pass some 450 bills. There’s going to be a lot more collaboration and agreement than there will be disagreement.”

Even Cadman was optimistic.

“Our job always gets done and if it doesn’t that will be a heck of a story to write,” he said. “We will pass a budget. We will pass the school finance act. Everything else is second to that.”

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, right, gives Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey a tour of the remodeled kitchen Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center in Colorado Springs. The country remodeled the kitchen after May’s heavy rainfall damaged the roof and ceiling. The $1.529 million project included a new roof, ceiling, and floor with trench drains. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE