Municipal finance may seem complicated but, in the end, it can be summed in the old line touting regular oil changes to avoid engine overhauls: “Pay me now or pay me later.”
Denver, like most government bodies, regularly skimps on the routine maintenance of streets, bridges, sewers and other vital but unglamorous infrastructure items.
Routine maintenance just doesn’t have the political appeal of glamour projects like new sports stadiums.
Streets are an obvious example. Depending on variables including weather and traffic, a typical residential street needs to be rotomilled and resurfaced every eight to 12 years at a cost of about $100,000 a mile.
If that work isn’t done in a timely fashion, water will seep into cracks and freeze, damaging the roadbed. Then, it may cost $1 million a mile to rebuild a street that could have been saved at a tenth of that cost a few years earlier.
Last winter’s blizzards subjected Denver streets to many weeks of that freeze-thaw cycle – and cast a pitiless light on their previous neglect. Now, the city is getting ready to ask the voters for a bond issue to repair or replace items that should have been depreciated or included in routine maintenance all along.
Denver voters have heard this pitch many times before, roughly every 10 years.
But this fall, if the recommendations of Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Infrastructure Priorities Task Force are followed, they will also have a chance to end the cycle of neglect and catch-up by approving a property tax hike of 2.5 mills, costing the average homeowner $50 a year.
That money would be added to the $31.4 million the city now pays to maintain facilities, roughly doubling the maintenance budget to a level that should properly service the city infrastructure and forestall the need for another catch-up bond issue a decade hence.
Still, the piper must be paid for past neglect, and the task force has proposed a $340 million bond issue for $50 million in street reconstruction, $38 million for a new Denver crime lab, $18 million for the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter, and for refurbishing or replacing other existing city facilities. Those bonds could be repaid without an increase in the city’s current mill levy.
The final recommendation is for a separate, second bond issue of $227 million that would be financed by a mill levy increase of 1.9 mills, costing the typical homeowner another $38 a year. This bond issue would be used to pay for new amenities such as additional parks, cultural facilities and recreation centers.
If you’re a Denver taxpayer, the city needs to hear from you before it decides which plans to put on next November’s ballot.
Accompanying this editorial is a listing of five upcoming public meetings on the proposals. Why not attend one and make your voice heard?
Voice your opinion on the bond issue
There will be five community meetings to discuss the proposed infrastructure bonds. All meetings will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Southeast: June 6: District 3 Police Station; 1625 S. University Blvd.
Northwest: June 7: St. Anthony Central Hospital, Auditorium A; 4231 W. 16th Ave.
Far northeast: June 12: Montbello Recreation Center, Multipurpose Room; 15555 E. 53rd Ave.
Southwest: June 13: Brentwood United Methodist Church; 1899 S. Irving St.
Central/northeast: June 14: National Jewish hospital, Rooms 103, 104 and 105; 1400 Jackson St.
For more information, go to denverinfrastructure.org.
