City outlines long-term financial strategy; 2025 to focus on "take care of what we have" measures

Charlotte Husky, the city's budget officer, presented the city’s long-term financial strategy to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and described it as a foundational, multiyear effort to align revenues, reserves and service levels.

Husky told the board the strategy builds on earlier reviews, including the Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations, and aims to increase revenue flexibility and reduce dependence on sales and use tax. She summarized the framework around three guiding principles—fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity, and resiliency—and said staff are inventorying fees, taxes and service-level priorities across departments.

Husky said the council saw a preliminary estimate of roughly $380 million in combined capital and ongoing needs across the organization and that the city is considering a two-stage ballot strategy: 2025 measures narrowly focused on “taking care of what we have,” such as extending or modifying existing dedicated taxes for core capital and maintenance; and a broader package in 2026 that could include additional, larger measures for unmet needs. She said staff will complete a current-state inventory and recommend priorities in time to inform council’s annual budget timetable.

Board members asked how parks and rec priorities like future recreation-center projects would fit. Husky and Allie (Parks staff) said the 2025 package will prioritize maintaining existing services and capital repairs, and that larger new projects such as a replacement or major renovation of South Boulder Recreation Center would be more likely candidates for 2026 ballot planning because those projects require more detailed cost and program definition.

Husky outlined a timeline that would wrap phase one of the strategy in early 2025 and carry major ballot-measure development and refinement through the first half of 2026. She said staff will continue community engagement and work with the Financial Strategy Committee (three council members) to refine priorities and language before anything is placed on the ballot.

Board members raised questions about dedicated funds, the mechanics of undedicating or extending taxes, and how parks projects would be prioritized alongside public-safety and housing needs. Husky said staff would develop communications and clearer project-level examples (playgrounds, courts, maintenance backlogs) to help voters assess trade-offs.

—Evidence: Budget officer presentation and Q&A recorded in the board meeting.