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Boulder staff outline long‑term financial strategy, plan community outreach for potential 2025–26 measures
Summary
City budget staff reviewed a multi‑year long‑term financial strategy that aims to increase revenue diversity and flexibility, address underfunded capital needs and prepare a multiyear ballot strategy. Staff proposed community engagement called 'Fund Our Future' and estimated potential revenue from proposed measures.
Charlotte Husky, the City of Boulder budget officer, briefed the Water Resources Advisory Board on the city’s long‑term financial strategy, an organization‑wide effort to identify funding gaps, increase flexibility across city funds and plan possible ballot measures in 2025 and 2026.
Husky said sales and use tax and property tax remain the city’s primary general‑purpose revenues; she estimated sales and use tax accounts for about 40% of general‑purpose revenues and property tax about 12–15%. She told the board that Boulder has a high share of dedicated and restricted sales‑tax revenue — about 56% of current sales taxes are earmarked for specific purposes — and that city leaders want more flexibility to meet changing needs.
As part of the long‑term strategy, staff will run four work streams: a five‑year comprehensive financial plan, alternative funding mechanisms (taxes, fees, grants and public‑private partnerships), core service‑level definitions and a multiyear ballot measure strategy. Husky said staff are refining an unfunded and underfunded needs list (currently estimated at about $38 million for certain capital needs) and will run community conversations called “Fund Our Future” from July through October to gather public priorities.
Husky described options that city leaders are weighing for 2025 and 2026. For 2025, staff are discussing a narrower approach to cover existing asset maintenance and capital needs (examples under consideration include extending the existing 0.3 percent Community Cultural Resilience and Safety sales/use tax beyond its current sunset and creating a broader “public realm” tax to expand parks property‑tax uses and allow debt issuance). Husky gave preliminary revenue estimates: extending the CCRS tax beyond its sunset could generate about $15 million annually; a public‑realm property tax change could generate about $7 million annually and allow earlier borrowing to finance capital work.
Husky said staff plan a statistically valid polling effort in early 2026 and will bring refined recommendations and analysis to city council in May 2026. She invited board members and the public to upcoming Fund Our Future outreach and said the initiative builds on prior Blue Ribbon Commission and budgeting‑for‑resilience recommendations.
Ending: City staff will continue to refine the unfunded needs list, run public engagement this summer and fall, perform polling and return to council with more detailed proposals next year.
