We’re hitting stride on prognostication season for the four-month legislative session that begins Jan. 11. The preseason festivities are underway as the media and public-interest groups begin the forecasting process on which major bills could have the most impact in the state’s future, and how to pay for that vision.

There are several major forums coming up, when legislators and interest groups discuss the issues-including at the Capitol at 2 p.m. on Jan. 4, organized by ColoradoPolitics.com and other members of the Capitol press corps. The itinerary is in flux, so stay tuned for a full blog updating who’s in and who’s asking questions.

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce will host a breakfast on Jan. 5 at 7 a.m. (it takes an $85 ticket, but includes cozying up to the A-list of Denver’s business, civic and political communities).

ColoradoPolitics.com and the Colorado Springs Gazette will sponsor a meet and greet and discussion with El Paso County legislators that evening at 6 at Centennial Hall in downtown Colorado Springs.

You can read about all three events on ColoradoPolitics.com.

For people following the Gold Dome like it’s fantasy sports, the must-read primer for the session so far was put out Wednesday by the Colorado Municipal League. The association of towns and cities breaks down the major issues: transportation, marijuana, taxation, broadband expansion and urban renewal.

“The League will continue to advocate for a statewide solution to address the transportation and transit needs of all municipalities in partnership with the state,” the report states. That’s a heady assessment, and one shared by incoming House Speaker Crisanta Duran of Denver.

She told me Wednesday that the state can’t postpone a way to pay for transportation any longer because if cities finance their own work on major projects, they will never support a statewide plan that would help the Western Slope and Eastern Plains.

Last year, for example, Colorado Springs residents voted 2-to-1 to raise the city sales tax to pay for $250 million in road work over five years.

A word of caution, though, on any talk of a statewide transportation tax hike comes from Michael Fields, state director for the tax-hike-averse Americans For Prosperity. He had had this to say on Twitter Wednesday:

On private clubs and on-premises pot use, the Municipal League said locals should decide whether they want them around. CML said it would help create legislation to allow cities to opt into allowing private marijuana clubs, as well as create a minimum definition of “open and public consumption” in Colorado. That definition would override the ban in the 2012 Amendment 64 legalization law to allow pot pubs and weed gardens at special events-because nobody tokes at Red Rocks now.