There was one immediate winner at a rally Sunday in support of legislation designed to create jobs in Colorado - Culinary Wave catering service.

Jeff Elder said he was approached Saturday by officials from the Colorado Contractors Association about providing hot dogs, stromboli and juice for about 75 construction workers and business owners attending the noon rally in support of Senate Bill 108, which will be voted on in the House this week.

Elder, co-owner of the Lakewood-based company, didn't hesitate.

"The economy is definitely hitting us," Elder said. "We're going to take most anything we can get."

While Elder's crew was dishing up food for the workers, House Speaker Terrance Carroll, Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Summit County, spoke about how vital it is that the estimated $265 million road and bridge repair bill be passed.

"There is a cost to this bill," Rice said. "But there is a much greater cost if we don't do anything."

The bill passed in the Senate 19-16 - largely along party lines - and is facing a vote in the House later this week.

If passed by the House and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, the bill will allow the government to raise motor vehicle registration fees by $32 this year and $41 next year. It also will make it easier to raise tolls on roads.

At the rally, supporters got a boost from Bruce Daly, chairman of the Regional Transportation District's legislative committee, who announced his committee is expected to vote in support of the bill Tuesday.

"I think this is a no-brainer," Daly said. "Our buses drive across those bridges. It's a matter of safety and a matter of jobs."

Critics such as Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, have said the bill amounts to an unconstitutional tax hike and violates the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Mitchell has said he believes the fee hikes would be challenged in court.

But workers at the rally Sunday believe the bill would stimulate economic growth and is needed immediately.

Matthew Wood, a sales manager for Ash Grove Cement Co., said business has fallen drastically since 2006 and that the bill would at least stem some of the bleeding incurred in the past year.

In 2006, he said, Colorado consumed 2.9 million tons of cement, but that dropped to 2 million tons in 2008. He said passage of the bill would at least allow the company to avoid layoffs.

"This is just going to get us to where we were last year," Wood said as he munched on a hot dog. "But it's important we don't lose more ground, which is what will happen if this fails."

Carroll said the bill would create 32,000 jobs, which, in turn, would create spending power in a state that has seen unemployment reach 6.1 percent - a five-year high.

"Does anybody have a problem with 32,000 new jobs?" Carroll asked the crowd on the steps.

"No," they yelled back before descending on the free food - all thematically named, including "structurally deficient" stromboli, representing 126 bridges in the state that need work, and "jobs juice."