Dear mayor, mayor pro tem, council members and community, 

Challenging times call for candid conversations, meaningful collaboration and creative problem-solving, and the process to develop this City Manager’s 2026 Recommended Budget has included all three.  

The path here has not been easy, but today I am proud to present you with a budget that accomplishes four noteworthy objectives: 

1. Balances a forecasted gap of $7.5 million in the General Fund
2. Supports priority services, programs and goals, consistent with our organizational and community values
3. Leverages resources across all funds in best-practice and appropriate ways
4. Positions the city for improved long-term fiscal sustainability 

As I’ve been saying for the past few years, we are in a period of constrained resources, and as we close out 2025 and approach 2026, there is significant cause for concern. In Boulder, and in communities across the country, we’re feeling the impacts of continued inflation and economic uncertainty. These conditions are creating a difficult reality: people are spending less, goods and services are costing more, needs are ever increasing in our community, and our revenue continues to flatten against original forecasts.  

Boulder’s budget is heavily reliant on the sales and use taxes we collect when people shop, build or provide services in our community, and when there is economic uncertainty in the world, we see that reflected in local spending patterns. On top of this, there are challenges outside our local control. Recent legislation at the state level limits the amount local jurisdictions can collect in property taxes. While most property tax revenue goes to the county and school district, the city receives 13 cents for every dollar, so reductions affect our budget as well. And while the full impacts of the new federal administration are still unclear, there’s need for caution as we seek to understand recent changes in budget priorities and grant requirements. 

A quick look at the numbers 

These realities have led to the development of an overall 2026 Recommended Operating Budget that is $407.68 million across all funds. This represents a 2.1% increase compared to last year. This is the slowest year-over-year growth in the city’s operating budget since the pandemic period. 

We anticipate the greatest shortfall will be in the city’s General Fund, which covers many of the core functions local government provides, including public safety, social services, homelessness prevention programs, and recreation facilities. The 2026 Recommended Budget accounts for this by cutting the General Fund allocation by 7.8% when compared to the 2025 Approved Budget. Proposed spending from the General Fund is capped at $194.48 million. 

The total 2026 Recommended Capital Budget is $113.3 million across all funds, with $789.5 million programmed in planned capital investments across the 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Program. This allocation is anticipated to cover 115 projects in 2026 – with a recognition that increasing costs are resulting in rescaled projects and in some cases, extending the time it will take to complete planned repairs, improvements and construction. 

Detailed information is available in the city’s online budget book. The Budget in Brief and Budget Highlights sections are a good place to start.  

I’d like to take this opportunity to share some summary information along with a few highlights and examples. 
 
Using the money we have differently to achieve key priorities 
 
The city budget is a key driver of what we can accomplish together, and even in constrained times, we must continue to advance the objectives most important to community.  

Specifically, the 2026 Recommended Budget achieves a balanced approach that positions us for new solutions to our homelessness challenges, ensures that wildfire resilience and prevention efforts are adequately resourced, evolves our approaches to emergency behavioral health response and supports the arts, while also recognizing the importance of core services and other Citywide Strategic Plan goals. 

To do this, we took a closer look than ever before at performance data and outcomes and found ways to repurpose existing money thoughtfully. Some of what we evaluated will result in changes to how the city delivers services. 

The following are a few examples of what this spending plan is designed to accomplish, along with details about some of the shifts we’re making to support these priorities: 

• Realignment of city services to advance the recently updated Homelessness Strategy, which challenges us to streamline case management and navigation, build on measurable successes, and enhance efforts towards more coordinated care. This strategy centers the critical partnership with All Roads (formerly Boulder Shelter for the Homeless). The city has worked collaboratively with All Roads leadership to ensure continuation of their important operations despite current economic conditions. This budget achieves this by:  

• • Cutting Boulder Targeted Homeless Engagement & Referral Effort (BTHERE) program funding to reduce duplication of services that could be supported through other non-profit partners, allowing All Roads to continue its focus on in-shelter navigation services ($115,000). 

• • Leveraging grant funds to offset some reductions in direct city contributions, with a goal of building capacity for diversion and rapid rehousing activities ($196,000). 

• • Ending some case management services offered by Municipal Court for clients without active municipal cases to avoid duplication and move towards a more cohesive strategy that leverages the entire homelessness system ($99,000).   

• • Eliminating the Bridge House contract for Ready to Work graduate housing support; instead, we’ll invite the nonprofit to participate in competitive human services funding programs ($48,000). 

         In addition, the city will support efforts to end unsheltered homelessness by:  

• • Increasing funding for the Building Home Program, to ensure that new residents of permanent housing are connected to peer support, preventing a return to the streets; this new support will utilize $275,000 from a one-time balance in the Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Services Fund. 

• • Continuing its support for Urban Park Rangers and the Safe and Managed Public Spaces program (SAMPS) but with a reduction in staffing for SAMPS, achieved through two existing vacancies, to reflect the current operational demand and signal a transition to more proactive solutions ($205,000). 

• Sustainable support for the city’s ambitious and pressing fire resilience and prevention work, through more strategic use of all funds. We propose to: 
   

• • Phase in the use of Open Space Tax revenue to support the critical wildland fire positions housed in Boulder Fire-Rescue. Fire-Rescue’s Wildland Unit, a total of seven positions, spends approximately 90% of their time lowering wildfire risk, through fuels mitigation work, for example, as well as preparing for and responding to wildfires on city-owned Open Space and Mountain Parks. This budget phases in a portion of those personnel costs under the Open Space Tax Fund. (As a note, this represents a return to prior practice. Until 2019, the fund supported a portion of the wildland unit.) 

• • Transfer a portion of Climate Tax revenue to Fire-Rescue to cover costs associated with an existing Community Risk Reduction Specialist; this role is critical to advancing prevention work in areas of the city with greater potential for the start or spread of wildfires. 

• • Allocate some permit review fee revenue in the Planning & Development Services Fund to partially pay for four Fire-Rescue positions that support building review and inspections – proven strategies for reducing the risk of structure fires. 
       

• Compassionate and effective emergency behavioral health response, through an outcomes-driven reorganization of existing programming. This proposal is motivated largely by process improvement goals but also achieves budget savings.  
   

• • In 2026, two separate programs – Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT), which pairs a clinician with an officer, and Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE), which pairs a clinician with a paramedic – will be combined.  

• • Informal partnering in this direction, without an official merging of the programs, allowed the team to respond to a total of 2,274 calls in 2024, an increase of 60% compared to 2023. At the same time, data showed that the CARE program is supporting, on average, one or fewer behavioral health response calls each day, and having two dedicated paramedic positions has not affected outcomes in the ways anticipated. Based on this, the team began to consider a new approach. Their recommendation included eliminating the two paramedic roles, as well as one vacant behavioral health clinical case manager. 

• • Under the new model, clinicians will be accompanied by an officer when conditions require but have the option to respond with other behavioral health staff when an officer is not needed. If medical care becomes necessary, they’ll draw from our existing Fire-Rescue resources to ensure the patient’s needs are met. We’ve also asked Fire-Rescue to begin exploring an innovative community paramedic program that would pair well with their strategic goal of improving our advanced life support capabilities. 

• • This reorganization, with a budget realignment of $483,000, will allow staff to continue to provide compassionate, professional behavioral health response – with or without the presence of police officers – meeting the needs of community members experiencing crisis in a more streamlined and cost-effective manner. 

• Dedicated funding to foster arts, culture, & heritage activities in our community, consistent with the implementation of the Arts Blueprint in early 2026 
   

• • This budget envisions more than $2.4 million, an increase in year-over-year funding of 27%, to support arts programming, public art installations, and cultural events. The Office of Arts & Culture continues to prepare for the implementation of the Arts Blueprint, and an additional $45,000 in one-time funding will support the finalization of this strategic plan. The $2.4 million does not include funding that other city departments spend on arts-related activities.  

Capital projects and improvements 

In addition to offering valuable services and programs, the city also has a responsibility to take care of assets the community relies upon and plan responsibly for the future. While the reach of our capital improvement dollars has been impacted by economic conditions, and some delays have been necessary as dollars have simply not been able to stretch as far, the city will nonetheless advance critical infrastructure work. A few of the efforts the city will move forward in 2026 include: 

• Completion of the Western City Campus community service hub at Alpine and Broadway, which will open in 2027 
   

• • The hub will replace and consolidate nine deteriorating public office buildings, some of which are in the floodplain; create greater collaboration opportunities for staff across departments; and provide a more convenient location for community members to conduct business with the city. This move will not only create more efficiencies across departments but will save the city critical dollars by no longer needing to waste money on buildings that have simply depreciated way past their useful life. 
     

• Improvements to the customer experience for community members who seek to access services or interact with the city 
   

• • Drawing from feedback from both community and staff, we’ve identified a need to improve, streamline and strategically redesign our businesses processes. Put simply, it’s often hard for community to communicate and work with us. While we’ve made some improvements that have helped with this in recent years, the next step requires the modernization and replacement of digital tools for the public to conduct business and interact with the city. 

• • This will include the replacement of Inquire Boulder. The new technology will be covered by repurposed dollars ($1.7 million in 2026, with a total budget of $3.5 million over the 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Program). 

• • By providing more integrated and consistent online systems, we hope to make it easier for individuals to complete basic tasks from the convenience of their homes and at times that work best for them. 

• • As we evaluate appropriate tools, we know there will be opportunities to change our business processes to eliminate unnecessary or inefficient steps along the way. Our goal is to have integrated, accessible and streamlined systems – both online and in person – to meet our community’s needs and expectations. 
     

• Preparation for the Sundance Film Festival 
   

• • As we prepare to begin hosting this premier cultural event in 2027, investments are needed in transportation, security, venue and permitting support. This budget allocates $2 million in one-time funding to establish a solid foundation for the first year of this major event. While the festival will require this up-front investment, we look forward to the economic and cultural benefits this opportunity will bring to the city in the long run. 
     

• Replacement of Fire Station 2 at Baseline Road and Broadway Avenue to serve University Hill, Chautauqua, and the CU Boulder campus – one of the busiest districts in the city 
   

• Continued planning for enhancements to the Civic Area, designed to reimagine and reinvigorate the heart of our city; the primary focus in 2026 will be on completing important floodplain review processes 
   

Trade-offs 

You can’t reduce the General Fund, in anticipation of less money coming in, and meet our community’s needs without also making trade-offs. 

One of the most challenging decisions – and one with the most lasting impact – was to eliminate the equivalent of three positions that are currently filled and 16 vacant regular positions to lower ongoing personnel costs.  

Staff reductions are hard and have real impacts on valued colleagues, but honestly, the city’s challenge could have been significantly worse. Fiscal prudence and budget reform efforts have left us in better positions than many of our peers. We are already seeing headlines from Denver, from the state and elsewhere about their efforts to address much larger budget shortfalls. Many of them will be implementing mass layoffs, furloughs and other measures that will erode the asset that community depends on most: dedicated and skilled public servants. 

I stand behind the decision to avoid major moves that will impact our ability to remain an employer of choice. After all, we can’t serve community if we don’t have qualified people to perform the work. As such, the 2026 Recommended Budget will meet our contracted general salary increase obligations and maintain merit increases for non-union employees.  
 
I am incredibly proud of the individuals I work with every day. I know Boulder is better because of them and that without this talent, we’d be unable to serve our community at the levels that are expected of us. 

This decision to depart from the organizational cut approaches that others are taking, however, means we had to look deeply at our programs. The following are some of the noticeable and community-facing areas of impact: 

• Human Services  
   

• • Elevate Boulder: While this pilot project has demonstrated successful and meaningful outcomes for individuals and families, the city will only be able to fund a new cohort of participants if the program is able to generate its target private-sector contributions. If this funding goal is achieved, the city is prepared to leverage Human Services reserves to generate a match, to maintain forward progress. 

• • Community grant funding: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city has been bolstering the Human Services Fund grants programs with additional funding to support low-income community members. Unfortunately, with this year’s budget challenges, we cannot continue these subsidies at the same levels. The total amount of $100,000 that was added as one-time funding to support the Human Services Fund is not included in the 2026 Recommended Budget. 
       

• Recreation 
   

• • As raised in previous years, additional funding would be required to maintain the current level of recreation service. While the Fund our Future project will inform levels of service and funding priorities, the city will be following the 2022 BPR Plan and 2023 Fee Policy to adjust service and subsidy levels and/or increase fees so that revenues can match expenses. To continue funding important community benefit programming, fees are increasing for other services. For example, more than 4,000 community members will continue to receive 100% free access to recreation facilities through the Requity program, and others may pay higher fees. 

• Open Space and Mountain Parks 
   

• • This department will continue to reduce its investments in new land, as well as water and mineral rights acquisition. This reflects a planned strategic shift the department has already been contemplating for the past few years as it prioritizes “taking care of what we have” rather than continuing to focus on expansion. In 2026, the department’s land acquisition funding will decrease from $3 million to $500,000. 

• • OSMP will also reduce its annual Capital Improvement Project budget in 2026. These reductions were already planned for when 2026 CIP projects were first identified (OSMP generates a three-year capital workplan). The timeline of the phased reductions is generally aligned with the OSMP Strategic (Master) Plan implementation horizon (through 2029) and planning for the reduction in a sales tax increment in 2034. The 2026-31 Capital Improvement Program includes support for Open Space capital improvement projects in 2027 and 2028 with Lottery Fund revenues. These future projects include the Fort Chambers/Poor Farm site Management Plan implementation, the Chautauqua Ranger Cottage and Trailhead redesign, local food farm site improvements and OSMP Climate Plan implementation efforts, among others.  
     

• Communications and Engagement 
   

• • To continue support for the city’s Community Connectors programs, this department will discontinue the Neighborhood Grants Program and produce one print edition newsletter a year, instead of two. Data related to the grant program show that some of the neighborhoods receiving funding could likely support some community-building opportunities without assistance, and those with economic limitations could potentially be supported differently in the future. In addition, the grants – relatively small sums – took significant staff time to administer. By freeing up this person’s time, the department will be able to reduce consultant contracts associated with other priorities. 

None of these decisions – nor any others in this recommended budget – was made lightly. Whenever possible, we leaned into our Sustainability, Equity & Resilience Framework, Council Priorities and Citywide Strategic Plan to evaluate proposals.  

Enhanced Revenue Measures 

While the 2026 Recommended Budget stands on its own, its creation coincides with the ongoing development of the city’s Long-Term Financial Strategy. City Council set this as a top priority in 2024, recognizing that over-reliance on sales and use taxes put the city in a vulnerable position, especially during economic downturns. We’re making good progress on this project, which includes several areas of focus. 
 
One of the focuses has been on examining alternative revenue sources. While we understand that fees can be challenging for those who are affected, we have identified several ways the city has been leaving potential revenue on the table. We can no longer afford to do so. 

This budget provides us with the first opportunity to put some of our findings in place, while recognizing that community members are also stretched financially.   

In 2026, the city will take a balanced approach to increasing revenue by adjusting some existing fees and adding a few new sources while continuing to study others. The recommended budget includes the following measures: 

• Implementation of a Transportation Maintenance Fee: The potential of a fee has been considered and studied for several years, and we are eager to move forward with a more sustainable way to fund maintenance of transportation infrastructure. Paid by property owners, this fee would fund critical needs such as bridge maintenance, pavement management, sidewalk repair and street markings. The city expects to collect an estimated $2.25 million in 2026 with mid-year implementation of the fee, with an anticipated $6.4 million in full-year revenue into the future, to put toward this important and underfunded work. Fees would be set based on property type – the fee for a single-family home, for example, has been modeled at $53 a year. 

• An increase in parking fees: A very modest 50 cents increase in hourly parking fees for both on-street and city-owned garage parking. This change is expected to generate approximately $800,000 in 2026. 

• Launch of speed on green cameras: While the primary objective for this technology is to reduce speeds and increase safety, consistent with Vision Zero, this budget assumes collection of about $2.6 million in 2026, with a modeling assumption that revenue will go down as driver behavior changes. 

• Single-family housing expansion fee: A $15-per-square-foot fee is proposed to be charged for expansion or replacement of existing single-unit dwellings if plans increase the size by 500 square feet or more. This is expected to generate $400,000 in 2026 to support affordable housing development.