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Denver budget office kicks off 2027 process, flags flat revenues and $30M franchise uncertainty

Denver City Council Finance and Business Committee · April 28, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City Finance briefed the committee on 2025 results, reporting a $197 million fund balance (about 11.5% of revenues) and AAA credit ratings, but warned of flat or slightly declining revenues for 2026–27 and flagged that Excel franchise fee revenue (~$30M) depends on a voter referral.

City budget officials on April 28 used the Finance & Business Committee meeting to formally kick off the 2027 budget process and to outline the city's near-term fiscal picture, saying the City ended 2025 with reserves slightly better than projected but that revenue risks remain.

Justin Sykes, director of the Budget and Management Office, told the committee the 2025 books are preliminarily closed and unaudited but showed revenues roughly $2 million below last fall's revised forecast and expenditures materially below budget, producing a year-end fund balance reported at $197,000,000 — about 11.5% of revenues — versus the prior projection of $179,000,000. "Our revised revenue projections that were released in September were…

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