Local leaders could get to call the shots with part of the money from a state transportation plan in the works at the state Capitol.

That was the revelation from a forum with House Speaker Crisanta Duran and Senate President Kevin Grantham Tuesday night in Denver. Business leaders came from across the state for the event put on by the coalition Fix Colorado Roads and the Colorado Business Roundtable.

Duran said she and Grantham had agreed on several things: the state needs about $3 billion in bonds to pay for transportation, the state needs to ask voters for some new tax money in November and, thirdly, local governments should decide local needs.

“One solution in one part of the state is not necessarily the solution for another part of the state,” she said.

If places such as Boulder and Denver want buses or light rail, they can build it. If rural communities decide to invest in roads versus bridges, or construction versus maintenance, that could be a possibility under the joint proposal.

“If they want to fix a pothole, let them fix a pot hole. If they want to pave a street, pave a street,” Grantham said. “If they want to provide bus service for their seniors or disabled, they can use it for that, as well.”

The amount of money invested in transit is expected to be a major issue. Republicans tend to prefer less of it in favor of asphalt. Democrats see it as a long-term investment to hedge against future growth.

Duran said Tuesday night she’s committed to it.

“Mobility is so important; we see so many people moving to this state,” she said. “We have to start doing things differently. The status quo is not going to work. We have to organize our roads to not only move cars but to be focused on moving people.”

Shaillen Bhatt, the director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, put a picture of his adorable children on the display monitor. He joked it might soften up people who don’t like him.

Coloradans say all the time that people back in the 1980s should have addressed some of the transportation problems that cause traffic jams and highway fatalities today, he said.

“My second daughter was born here, and if we’re still here 20 years from now I don’t want her to saying, ‘Daddy, why didn’t you do something about this?” Bhatt said.

He said 19 states have raised their gas taxes, including Utah, which he likened to Jerry Seinfeld’s nemesis Newman. He said most of the states that have passed the taxes for roads and bridges are “deep red,” as in conservative.

“Utah is investing in businesses because they want the businesses that are locating in Colorado,” he said, stoking rivalry. “They want to be able to say, ‘Come live here. We have mountains. We have all these things, but what we don’t have that Colorado has is we don’t have their traffic.'”

Grantham laid out the challenge legislative leaders have in crafting a plan that Democrats and Republicans can live with. The plan has to pass a very left-leaning Democratic majority in the House and conservative Republican majority in the Senate.

Then whatever winds up on the ballot has to pass muster with an unpredictable Colorado electorate, which just last November rejected an increase in the state cigarette tax, 53 percent to 47.

Grantham called bonds an immediate fix to get projects underway, but, “where do we find the money to make these bond payments? How do we take care of other things, such as our local counties and municipalities? How we make sure they have enough money for their roads and bridges?”

He said he remains optimistic about a legislative compromise and a referred ballot measure in November. Asked by moderator Jeff Wasden, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable, what it would mean if they failed, Grantham said he couldn’t imagine that possibility.

“Pretty optimistic, folks,” he said earlier in the forum. “I say that (and) this is not an easy issue. I am optimistic that I think our success at least getting through a very diverse Senate versus House is something that’s going to happen, but it’s going to have to have a realistic chance of getting the voters’ support at the end of the day.”