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Boulder staff focus 2026 budget on realignments, service‑level review and long‑term financial strategy
Summary
With limited ongoing revenue, staff told council the 2026 budget will emphasize program realignments, reserves and community engagement; Fund Our Future community conversations are scheduled June–October to prioritize services and potential revenue options.
City budget staff presented a revised financial forecast and the next steps for the city’s long‑term financial strategy and 2026 budget direction.
Charlotte Heskey, budget officer, told council the city is operating with constrained ongoing revenue and that the updated 2025–26 forecasts reduce ongoing funding availability. Staff reiterated budget guidance to prioritize realignments, care for existing assets, and limit new ongoing program enhancements. The city requested departments submit two‑year revenue plans, proposed fee updates and a full inventory of services and service levels to inform 2026 decisions.
Heskey described the multiyear balance measure framework and the Fund Our Future community engagement plan (June–October), which staff will use to surface service‑level priorities with residents. Staff confirmed the city has $96.8 million in active federal awards and roughly $54.3 million remaining to be expended and reimbursed; no direct city federal award has yet been impacted, but staff are monitoring pending awards and Buy America/tariff cost pressures.
Staff asked council whether they had questions about the unaudited 2024 year‑end results and 2026 budget assumptions and said the final recommended budget will be released publicly in late August for council study in September and adoption in October. Council members signaled support for using performance and outcomes data to guide realignments and asked staff to make funding tradeoffs visible in the materials before July decision points.
Staff emphasized the city’s work on ’budgeting for resilience and equity’ over the past three years as a foundation for this constrained cycle and said the finance team will deliver an updated revenue forecast before final July decisions. The city’s capital improvement program remains heavily leveraged and carries unfunded backlog; staff urged attention to prioritizing maintenance, existing asset care and potential debt authorizations tied to ballot measures.
