Mayor John Hickenlooper’s proposed $773 million fiscal 2006 budget, a modest 3.8 percent increase over the current year, is a hopeful sign that Denver is on its way out of the fiscal woods.
The budget sent to the City Council last week is based on a conservative projection of 2.8 percent growth in sales-tax revenues. The administration also wants to use $11.7 million of general fund reserves for one- time costs, which worries some council members and bears attention.
Hickenlooper isn’t going on a spending spree – he’s gotten used to running lean since taking office in 2003 when the economic downturn forced deep cuts. Except for hiring 20 additional cops, there’s no stampede to fill the 500 to 600 job vacancies created by attrition the past two years.
“This proposed budget continues our efforts to find efficiencies, enabling us to restore services to previous levels, particularly the hiring of new police to increase the number of officers on our streets,” the mayor said in his announcement.
The budget earmarks $2.8 million for hiring and training 135 police officers who will fill 115 vacancies from retirements and add 20 more officers to bring strength up to 1,425 officers, says Cole Finegan, the mayor’s acting chief of staff.
Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz says she hoped to see the addition of even more police officers, and she disappointed that the budget contains funds for just two aerial fire trucks.
Police and fire services indeed have more needs than can be met in the new budget. But we worry that “wild cards” like higher gasoline prices and rising natural gas costs could eat away gains in city revenues.
We share Councilman Doug Linkhart’s elation that the budget calls for the Central Library, now closed Wednesdays, to operate seven days a week and his hope that savings can later fund new programs “as things improve.”
“I’m pleased with the budget,” said District 6 Councilman Charlie Brown. “The No. 1 issue in my district is and has been, for the last two years, crime. Hands down.”
Brown is worried that a plan to tap the projected $88.5 million general fund reserve will affect Denver’s bond rating. Brown notes that the city is about ready to sell $77 million in new bonds, primarily for the new justice center.
There’s “some apprehension,” according to Finegan, about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the national economy and on federal funding available to the city. Given such uncertain times, the city’s budget restraint is reassuring.
