City Council Trying to Rasie Revenue While Cutting Back

By Kristen Scheirman

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - People are counting every penny. Making dramatic cuts in their spending. Waiting for the end of the economic recession.

Just like the Fort Collins City Council members who met at City Hall West on Tuesday to discuss several parts of the 2011-2012 Recommended Budget. The council largely focused on major budget cuts that are on the agenda because of the economic downturn. They also talked about how to get more revenue into the city by increasing the number of visitors to the Fort Collins area.

“This is our third of four sessions on the 2011-2012 budget,” said City Manager, Darin Atteberry. “Two weeks from tonight we have our fourth and final meeting. Next Tuesday night we have a second public hearing so we’re looking forward to that.”
There are several plans the city has in order to raise more revenue, including attracting more visitors.

“We just conducted the 2010 visitors profile study to measure our visitors who were here this summer versus a few years ago and what trends we are seeing change,” said Jim Clark of the Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Visitation here was quite good. But we are seeing shorter stays and people are shopping hotel rates more carefully.”

The city has been successful in promoting breweries and brewery tours, however, council members are hoping increased advertising and information about Fort Collins on the Internet will attract more visitors to the area.

The council also wants to increase traffic at the Fort Collins-Loveland Airport in order to raise more revenue for the city but they don’t expect to see those results anytime soon.

“We don’t assume that it is going to happen right away. I would see that as a budget item for 2012,” Chief Financial Officer Mike Freeman said. “I think from where we are from an economic standpoint it’s further off than we first imagined.”

The meeting got a little heated when the issue of cutting the funding for sidewalk cleaning came up. Currently, the city power washes major intersections six to seven times a year but with the current budget proposal, all sidewalk cleaning would be cut.

“You know sidewalk cleaning, it’s one of my favorite topics,” council member Kelly Ohlson said. “I just can’t get enough of sidewalk cleaning… I can’t even tell [the sidewalks] are cleaned now.”

“There is a lot of foot traffic there and activity and vendor carts,” Atteberry said. “There’s spillage and stuff like that. I think this will be significantly noticeable.”

Just as the recession has been significantly noticeable.