The Loveland City Council off-site for today and tomorrow will consider the financial future of the city. The overall budget is being presented in three different scenarios; best, nominal and worst case.
Unfortunately, every scenario relies on revenue from Grand Station even though it wasn’t built which means every scenario contains long-term projections that are at the very least optimistic and hardly worst case. At the same time, the capital improvement budget fails to fund a fire station in East Loveland which will be required if Grand Station is really built someday. This is what some people call “having your cake and eating it too.”
Money available in the past two years for land speculation along the I-25, grease payments for annexation agreements to compete with Johnstown and other multi-million dollar unplanned spending have created a pinch in the finances of the city. City Manager Williams is telling council that if they want to support even the necessary utility improvements downtown they will need to raise property taxes across Loveland or cripple the Urban Renewal Authority with more debt. This should make for an interesting discussion.
What is conspicuously absent from the budget memos and discussion is the money borrowed from CEF’s (Capital Expansion Funds) for emergency fire protection and parks and recreation. Maybe this is because most residents would be shocked to learn that money was taken by council to fund the acquisition of speculative property ventures along I-25 from the CEF’s.
It appears that Williams intends to retire in 2009 as he has set the city on a collision course beginning in 2010. Deficit spending will range between $16 million to $50 million for the city by 2015 even if you believe growth in sales tax revenue will continue.
One solution being proposed by staff is the elimination of certain services for the residents of the community. Of course, limiting services to residents while increasing their taxes is a staff generated option. A meeting in late spring to identify those services the residents don’t need is being planned – stay tuned.
A number of the City Council members read this blog and would likely appreciate your thoughts on how to fix the city’s looming financial train wreck.
