City Council Discusses Proposed Budget

By Tasia DeMuth

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Money dominated discussion amongst city officials on Tuesday night, as they debated, questioned and clarified the proposed 2011 to 2012 budget that ultimately will distribute city revenues into the many different areas that require funds.

This particular session was the third meeting of four to discuss the budget proposals. The three headliner topics were economic health, high performing government, and environmental health. Council members had the opportunity to ask questions of and provide feed-back on the budget in each of these three categories.

Overall, the message of the meeting was that the city doesn’t have enough money to do everything that ideally would be possible. Thus a balancing act ensues, as city officials try to distribute the insufficient amount of money across substantial demands.

“We are doing good things but we’re not great,” City Manager Darin Atteberry said. “I think there’s room for a lot of improvement.”

The discussion kicked off with input on the proposals for economic health in the budget. One positive trend in Fort Collins’ economy is that visitation is going well. The city’s marketing has proven effective, and public relations are getting Fort Collins on the map. This is positive because visitation brings in revenues that are essential for the city.

One aspect of the economy that is expected to produce revenues is the Fort Collins/Loveland Airport. However, currently this project is an expense, as the city has contributed $85,000. This is a potential issue, because there is so little money already, and if revenues are slow to come from the project, then the pay back will be slow as well.

Lack of funds has also led to the proposed reduction in crime prevention programs for the city. Because resources are stretched so thin already, the department needs to make these cuts so that officers can respond to alarms. Currently several false alarms take up much needed resources. However, the police are going to respond to all the alarms, because they need to be available for the public in case the situation is not a false alarm.

“It’s frustrating to have these things reduced,” Mayor Dough Hutchinson said.

Because of lack of funds, ballot issue 2B, which will be voted on in November by voters, came up frequently. According to some estimates 2B will raise the sales tax by .85% which gives the city revenues of approximately $18.5 million per year. The money would then be used on roads and transportation, police and fire services, and parks and recreation. All these areas have experienced cuts in the past, and require more funds. This increased sales tax would be a way to get more money into different programs, with a relatively small impact on individuals.

Discussions that dominated the category of high performing government include funds for better software, money for maintenance for buildings, and under staffing. The new software is imperative, because currently customer information is not very secure. New applications are needed to make sure that the information is not easily accessible to hackers.

Government buildings are in desperate need of maintenance, as this has been an expense that the city has put off for some time. There are buildings with leaking roofs that must be fixed. This maintenance will take about $7 million.