The Boulder City Council on Thursday, Sept. 12, will weigh in on the city manager’s recommended 2025 budget, which has significant implications for investments in basic services, safety net programs and infrastructure projects. A public hearing and formal vote on the budget is scheduled for Oct. 3.
Last month, City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde proposed a $589.5 million city budget, marking a slight increase over last year’s. The budget includes new investments in affordable housing, rental assistance, the city’s encampment removal program, arts and culture, wildfire mitigation, streetscape improvements on University Hill and more.
But with rising operational costs and major revenue sources running out, the city manager is recommending a budget that is “leaner than in previous years.” Prior years have generally seen much larger year-over-year increases.
“Simply put, constraints require choices,” Rivera-Vandermyde said in a news release last month. “I am, nonetheless, proud of our recommendations, which balance support for promising programs that address some of our community’s greatest challenges with prudent, and in some cases, overdue, capital spending necessary for us to continue to deliver core services.”
Here are six takeaways from the city manager’s proposed 2025 budget.
Federal stimulus money is running out, and the future of safety net programs is uncertain.
The City of Boulder received more than $20 million under the American Rescue Plan Act, a federal pandemic-era stimulus package. Much of this money has been used to create a guaranteed income pilot program, fund second mortgages for residents of the Ponderosa mobile home community, provide childcare subsidies for childcare and expand Boulder’s mental health workforce.
Some ARPA funds were used to provide people with hotel rooms during the winter when the city’s largest shelter in North Boulder turns people away due to insufficient capacity. However, funding for that program has run out and is not included in the 2025 budget, according to a city official.
Other ARPA-funded programs are set to run out of money by 2026. This includes a peer support initiative to help newly housed individuals stay housed and a respite care program for homeless people transitioning out of the hospital.
Separately, state grant funding for homelessness programs at Boulder’s new day service center — covering peer support, housing retention and mental health services — is only secured through July 2025, and the city has yet to find additional funding, according to city officials.
The city’s biggest revenue stream is sales and use taxes, and it’s plateauing.
Along with the expiration of ARPA money, Boulder is experiencing flattening sales and use tax revenues. The city projects up to 2.5% annual growth in sales tax revenue through 2030, a significant slowdown compared to the 9.2% growth over the past three years. Last year, city officials warned councilmembers that recent increases in city spending were “unsustainable,” leading to a more conservative budget.
Uncertainty around property tax revenues, driven by new state legislation that could limit how much the city can collect, is another factor behind the constrained budget..
This financial forecast shaped the recommended budget.
While some programs are expanding, many initiatives, including long-term infrastructure projects, are being deferred until the city finds additional funding. The city estimates it has about $380 million in unfunded capital needs. For instance, the city has yet to find approximately $6 million to design an extended protected bike lane along Folsom Street, a key part of the city’s “core arterial network” aimed at improving safety for vulnerable road users, such as cyclists.
The city is considering a new long-term financial strategy that may include pursuing new revenue sources through future ballot measures or cutting programs.
The city manager wants to spend more on infrastructure projects.
Even as it defers projects, the city manager is recommending a 34.7% increase in one-time capital investments compared to 2024.
“During the pandemic, our attention shifted — as it needed to — toward people, with fewer resources allocated toward issues that seemed less urgent, like maintaining buildings and replacing aging fleet,” Rivera-Vandermyde said in a statement. “While these kinds of expenditures may not be as exciting to community, the cost of addressing deferred investments in infrastructure will only increase over time.”
New investments include replacing fire-rescue apparatus, such as ladder trucks, and maintaining public buildings, such as fire stations and rec centers.
The new investments reflect a broad view of public safety.
The proposed budget includes funding programs that address a range of public safety concerns.
The city plans to hire a property and evidence coordinator for the police department, a role intended to allow officers to focus more on crime prevention, a core principle in the city’s “reimagine policing” plan.
An additional $1.6 million is allocated for wildfire resilience efforts, including implementing the city’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan and launching a program offering up to $1,000 to property owners to reduce fire risk around their homes. This funding comes as home insurance companies increase rates or drop coverage for Boulder homeowners due to wildfire risk.
The budget also includes $1.4 million more for streetscape improvements around University Hill, focusing on artistic elements, improved lighting, upgraded alleys and better landscaping, according to a city staff memo.
Lastly, the city plans to increase spending for its encampment removal program, known as Safe and Managed Public Spaces (SAMPS) from about $3 million in 2024 to $3.7 million, which will include converting three temporary urban ranger positions into permanent roles.
Funding for arts and culture would nearly double.
Thanks to a 2023 sales tax extension, funding for local nonprofits supporting arts and culture programs will increase to about $2.8 million in 2025, up from $1.5 million in 2024. While some community members who advocated for the tax hoped the new revenue would add to existing spending, city officials stated that replacing previous funding sources is “standard financial practice.”
The city is proposing a rental license fee hike to pay for eviction prevention.
The city plans to spend about $1.4 million on its Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance (EPRAS) program, a slight increase over last year. With evictions rising in Boulder County, the city has had to limit the amount of assistance it provides to households.
To fund the program, city officials are proposing a rental license fee increase from $75 to $78.90, which would generate about $62,000 in additional revenue. In 2021, when the program began, it was funded from the city’s General Fund. Since then, the program has been paying that money back using rental license fee revenue. In 2025, the repayment will end, freeing up more money for rental assistance.
The city should not waste money on gimmicky road furniture that it claims is to “protect” bicyclists. Most cyclists are intelligent enough to protect themselves by thoughtful route finding and avoiding traffic. The city seems bent on inducing cyclists to ride on or near busy roads with noise and exhaust fumes. This is wrongheaded.
Here’s a radical idea. Admit that everyone who “wants” to live in Boulder cannot. That’s just the reality. To continue to go down the primrose path of “affordable housing, rental assistance” is financial foolishness and likely is not the wish of most of Boulder residents. You made your bed, Boulder, by conserving large swathes of open space (a good, no great, thing) that took out thousands of developable acres, and now you feel guilty about not having enough housing. Get over it.
Agreed with this point. I’m actually pretty astounded by the budget percentage that collectively is applied to enabling people to stay in places they clearly shouldn;t be. That applies to homeless spending in the form of cleanup, housing or services for homeless, rental assistance, eviction assistance, and so forth. All of these programs draw resources from the residents who can afford to live here to pay for services for those who cannot. And let’s be honest: those groups (collectively) never repay to public finances what is spent on them.
What is especially illogical about this situation is that Boulder is not an island. Costs of housing and most other services drops very fast if one goes 25 minutes away. There is simply no need to force fit solutions within this high cost city.
The City can save about $5 million right away by abandoning plans to narrow Iris from four lanes to two to benefit bikes. 16000 motorists and only about 130 bikes use Iris daily. Bike riders (like me) can continue to use Hawthorn /Grape or Kalmia where there are existing safe alternatives to Iris. Seems like a no brainer to me.
Spot on Bob.
Also stop making costs worse by approving 2206 Pearl expensive micro-efficiencies and approval of demolition of 1304 8th, a beautiful classic tourist attraction to Boulder and a stunning rebuke of city Landmarks Design Review Committee. You can see 1304 directly across the street to the N from the NW margin of Columbia Cemetery. That one, like 770 Circle is a war crime for different reasons.
Pretty incredible that the city saw a 9.2% growth in revenue the past three years and somehow siphoned all of those funds away. Meanwhile infrastructure like the South Boulder Rec Center is wasting away.
Not surprising, I suppose, given Boulder is trending towards a San Francisco model where vast amounts sums of funds are siphoned to pet projects and non-profits — with extremely little to show for it.