Denver’s sales-tax revenue plunged nearly 10 percent in February compared with the same month a year ago, forcing Mayor John Hickenlooper to order workers to take a furlough day next month and to prepare for two others.
The mayor announced the news in an e-mail to city workers Monday. City workers were furloughed one day last month.
The mayor’s effort to speed up construction of a new education and collection facility at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science also was dealt a blow by declining revenue. Revenues from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, a seven-county agency supported by a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax, dropped 18 percent in February from the amount collected in the same month last year.
The mayor had hoped to move up the date of construction for the museum’s $53 million expansion, as he has other improvement projects voters approved in a 2007 bond campaign.
But George Sparks, the president of the museum, told the City Council on Monday night that the lagging SCFD revenue meant he will have to delay breaking ground on the project. Sparks said the museum would have had to spend $740,000 on extra staffing associated with the project. He said the project will move forward when the economy improves.
February was the fifth month in a row the city has experienced a decline in sales-tax revenue compared with the same month a year ago.
The furloughs, scheduled for May 22, and potentially Oct. 23 and Nov. 27, affect primarily non-safety employees.
The ongoing revenue decline means the city will have to cut $10 million to $15 million on top of $56 million in previous cuts to this year’s budget. The four furlough days are expected to save the city $4 million.
Sales-tax revenue declined 10.3 percent in January compared with January 2008. In February, tax revenues lagged February 2008 by 9.9 percent.
Edward Scholz, director of budget and management, said department managers are being asked to come up with additional cuts for this year as they prepare for the 2010 budget.
The city now projects that the revenue for all of 2009 will be down about 5.8 percent from original projections.
