Littleton committee reviews 2024 spending from voter-approved 3A sales tax, requests project-level plan

Littleton City's 3A oversight committee met May 20 to review staff's annual report on spending from the voter-approved 3A sales tax and to request more project-level information and forward-looking plans before sending its advisory letter to city council.

The committee reviewed a staff-prepared 2024 spending report that shows $8.8 million in 3A capital spending last year and identified major line items including about $1 million in personnel charges, roughly $3.4 million for pavement management, $700,000 for transportation and bridges and transfers of about $1.3 million into internal service funds for IT and fleet replacement. Kevin Orson, the city's budget manager, told the group staff met the March 31 deadline for the draft report.

Committee members said they want clearer ties between personnel counts and near-term projects, an explicit five-year project list that links appropriations to planned work, and narrative context for categories such as Safer Streets and fleet replacement.

Staff presentation and numbers

Kevin Orson, budget manager for the city, said the packet was prepared to follow the committee's charter and that the draft report was delivered by the March 31 deadline. He summarized 2024 spending and the items the report must include, and showed the committee line-by-line categories and the projects page-by-page. Orson said staff is proposing a change in how the program measures capital project management overhead: “we are proposing... changing it to the revenue instead of the expense because the revenue is more consistent year over year,” a change meant to smooth planning across multiyear projects.

Brent Soderl…