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City outlines long‑term financial strategy, signals limited 2025 ballot asks focused on core services
Summary
City budget staff briefed the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board on a multiyear long‑term financial strategy intended to boost revenue flexibility and identify ballot options; staff said 2025 measures will focus on core, existing services while broader tax changes could be considered in 2026.
Charlotte Husky, Boulder’s budget officer, presented the city’s Long‑Term Financial Strategy (LTFS) to the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board and told members the work is intended to produce a multiyear financial framework to increase fiscal flexibility and address underfunded core services.
“We are looking to increase our flexibility of funding to meet emerging and changing community needs,” Husky said, describing the effort as a response to flat or volatile sales‑and‑use tax revenues that have reduced predictability for the city’s budget. The LTFS will inventory current revenues and fees, evaluate alternative funding mechanisms and identify core service levels and the funding needed to sustain them.
Husky said staff’s October estimate of unfunded and underfunded needs across the city is about $380,000,000, a figure that combines capital and ongoing costs. For the LTFS staff developed guiding principles—fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity and resiliency—and is working with the Financial Strategy Committee (a three‑member council committee) to shape policy guidance ahead of council decisions.
On ballot timing, Husky told the board staff aims to present a focused, incremental set of ballot proposals in 2025 that prioritizes funding to “take care of what we currently have,” including capital maintenance and core operations. Broader or new tax policies and larger investments are being scoped for 2026, she said. Staff emphasized that ballot language and final cost estimates require additional analysis and public engagement; staff said the 2026 package would be the likely vehicle for large new projects such as a new recreation center.
Board members asked whether a South Boulder recreation center project might appear on a 2025 ballot; staff said it is more likely to be considered in 2026 because a credible ballot ask requires detailed cost estimates and design work that staff do not expect to complete in time to develop ballot language for 2025. Husky and other staff said the process will include community prioritization and that staff will work with the Financial Strategy Committee to bring measures to council for the May deadlines in each ballot year.
Husky described the LTFS schedule as phased work: a current‑state assessment and initial recommendations in early 2025, deeper refinement and revenue options through 2025 and a final set of measures and recommendations in the first half of 2026. Staff noted that this schedule aligns with the city’s budget cycle and with planned public engagement.
