Boulder staff outline multi‑year financial strategy, recommend extending sales tax and exploring new public‑realm levy

City of Boulder staff presented an update on a long‑term financial strategy on April 3, 2025, asking council for early policy feedback on a multi‑year ballot approach and a community engagement plan.

The presentation outlined four work streams—long‑term financial planning, alternative funding mechanisms, core service levels and a multi‑year ballot measure strategy—and recommended two potential 2025 ballot measures: (1) extend the existing 0.3% Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety (CCRS) sales and use tax and (2) explore a new public‑realm property tax that would raise the permanent parks property tax from 0.9 mills to about 2.252 mills and broaden eligible uses (parks, civic buildings and public right‑of‑way). Staff described the two measures as complementary: the CCRS extension focused on capital maintenance and nonprofit capacity while the public‑realm levy would create a larger, more flexible revenue source for the city’s public infrastructure.

Why it matters: staff said the city is increasingly dependent on sales tax…