[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Needs of the general fund

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Becker, KC

I know this is incredibly short notice, but I figure short notice is better than no notice.  I have a question relating to Item 5C on tonight's agenda.

In recent conversations with various residents about the .25 sales tax and whether or to what extent it should be dedicated to Parks and Rec, someone asked me about what the real needs are of the General Fund. (For the public's benefit, if the sales tax is not dedicated solely to P&R, it would go to the General Fund which serves Police, Fire, Human Services, Library, city administration and pretty much every other city department to some extent). 

When sales tax revenues go down, the general fund really suffers (indeed all city funds suffer - but the general fund even more because it's the biggest and it funds departments that don't have dedicated funding streams).  With the question about the strength/needs of the general fund in mind, I looked at the most recent Revenue Report issued by the city to see what our expected sales tax revenue is looking like. I must admit, I have a hard time translating the Revenue Report into an answer about the needs or strength of the general fund in the near term, let alone the long term.

I'm hoping that our Finance Director, or someone else, can give us a quick picture about the near term needs of the General Fund and then the long term outlook. I know this is something usually covered during our budget discussions, but since those are only a few weeks off, I'm hoping this short notice request isn't too difficult. I also recognize that these are only projections and the farther out we go, the less certain we can be about them.

I think this discussion could be helpful to understanding what the larger budget picture is and could help us gauge the impacts of the dedicating taxes to one department. 


Thanks, 

KC Becker