Denver Mayor Michael Hancock today unveils a 2012 budget that contains no dramatic cuts or fee increases and resolves the anticipated $100 million deficit.
“This budget is going to be extremely status quo,” said Denver’s deputy chief financial officer Ed Scholz on Friday at a special City Council meeting.
No changes in library hours, few if any layoffs of city workers, no new fees at recreation centers and no major cuts in services are expected in the budget that will be scrutinized by the council.
Scholz on Friday declined to answer whether employees will be asked to take another round of furloughs, but Hancock has said furloughs are still “on the table.”
That the 2012 budget contains so little pain is surprising because city officials over the past nine months have warned of an impending huge deficit.
The issue and how to resolve the $100 million budget gap was fodder during the mayoral campaign. But former Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal resolved about $75 million of the gap before Hancock was inaugurated in July.
Now, Hancock’s budget will show that the deficit is being fixed half with permanent solutions and half with temporary fixes, Scholz said.
About $38 million was resolved through improved revenue projections and with moves like raising recreation fees. About $62 million was resolved through savings, including closing about 95 vacant positions that amounted to $12.4 million.
Scholz said that despite improved revenues, they are far from pre-recession levels of about 3.5 percent to 4 percent growth every year.
Now, the revenue growth projection for 2012 is about 2.1 percent, which is better than the 2.0 percent predicted in January.
Still, the city is about $80 million behind where it would be with 3 percent growth.
