An effort by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration to set aside $600,000 for loans to small-business owners almost foundered Monday night when some City Council members raised concerns about the cost.
In the end, the council granted initial approval of the plan on an 8-4 vote, with members Jeanne Faatz, Charlie Brown, Michael Hancock and Chris Nevitt dissenting.
Council President Jeanne Robb said she might end up voting no, too, when the issue comes back for final consideration next week, but she wanted to keep the discussion alive. Councilwoman Marcia Johnson was absent.
The skirmish could be the first of several to come. The mayor is scheduled to release his proposed budget today, and several council members stressed that it will spell out painful cuts that council members may dislike.
Faatz, who led the opposition to the small-business loans, said the program would rely on the general fund at a time when it is facing a $120 million budget deficit over the next 17 months. She also argued the program would be duplicative because the city already administers similar loan programs.
“We are establishing a new program in these dire times,” she scolded the rest of the council.
William Lysaught, the city’s small-business loan program manager, said the funding would come from money the council appropriated nearly a year ago from the general fund into the business incentive fund, which he said has favored larger business projects in the past instead of small businesses.
He said the program, in the long run, would increase the city’s tax revenues by growing businesses and producing interest income.
Brown agreed with Faatz that now was not the time to seek council approval for the effort.
“Timing is everything in politics,” Brown said. “This is an awful time to bring this. The budget debate begins now.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
