DENVER — Denver is looking for cash anywhere it can find it. But before the city can spend nearly $90 million on migrant services, the mayor’s office has to convince City Council to get on board with budget cuts.
In a meeting that rarely draws a crowd, the City Council Finance Committee on Tuesday was a sellout.
"It is a veritable who’s-who of Denver in here right now," joked Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, the chairperson of the committee.
The police chief, sheriff, and directors from nearly every department in Denver were all together in one room to see how city council will react to the budget cuts proposed by the mayor.
We’re now finding out where the money is coming from and what the city is doing away with.
The highest amounts come from public safety. The Denver Police Department is cutting nearly $8.5 million. Denver Fire is losing nearly $2.5 million. And the Sheriff’s Office is taking nearly $4 million in cuts. But even those amounts make up a small percentage of their annual budgets.
"You’ve talked a lot about what this isn’t going to affect. It’s not going to affect this, it’s not going to affect that. What is it going to affect, because it’s got to affect something?" Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez asked.
"I do think it would be inaccurate to say it’s not impacting anything," responded Stephanie Adams with the Denver Department of Finance. "We really try to mitigate the direct impact to services."
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is losing more than $5 million. That’s separate from the nearly $6 million the city is cutting from capital improvement projects. Things like redoing an aging underpass on Alameda and some traffic signal maintenance around the city will be canceled.
As Denver cuts money, some councilmembers want to see Denver try and make more money. How are traffic tickets looking? What about car registration fees? Nothing is off the table as the city searches for cash.
"I don’t think it is fair to our residents that we are reducing our services to them when there is an opportunity for us to be doing better making up some of those dollars in other ways, and we’re not," Sawyer said.
Let’s talk about who didn’t have to make a budget cut. The elected Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez told 9NEWS on Next several months ago that he wasn’t willing to make budget cuts, even though he was asked to do so. His office was spared.
The Denver district attorney is also independently elected. DA Beth McCann's office told 9NEWS they offered to cut $1.8 million, or 3.8% of their yearly budget, when asked by the mayor's office. The Denver Finance Office told 9NEWS Wednesday "as we refined our numbers over the past few months, the city no longer requested participation from other elected offices." No budget cuts were made from the DA's office.
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