City budget staff on April 8 presented a preview of a proposed long-term financial strategy for Boulder and outlined a multi-year ballot framework that could include narrow tax measures in 2025 and broader options in 2026.

The presentation, delivered by Charlotte Skee, budget officer for the City of Boulder, said the city is facing an estimated unfunded and underfunded needs list of about $380,000,000 and described two principal options under consideration for 2025: extending the existing 0.3% Community Cultural Resilience and Safety sales-and-use tax and raising the permanent parks property tax from 0.9 mills toward the city-charter cap (about 2.252 mills) to create a new “public realm” tax that would support parks, civic buildings and public-rights-of-way maintenance and allow debt issuance for capital projects.

Skee said the 0.3% tax currently raises roughly $15,000,000 annually and that about 90% of those revenues support city infrastructure while 10% support nonprofit capital capacity; the current term for the tax expires in the 2030s under the existing authorization. She estimated a parks/public-realm mill-levy increase could generate about $7,000,000 annually if the levy were raised toward the charter cap.

Why it matters: the city’s major revenue source is sales and use tax, which the presentation said is volatile and exposed to economic swings; staff described the strategy’s goals as increasing revenue diversity and stability, identifying and protecting core service levels, and creating a multi-year community engagement plan to prioritize trade-offs. Staff intends to use summer–fall public outreach branded as Fund Our Future, and to bring narrowed options and staff analysis to council in May 2026.

Details of the plan and next steps

Skee said the long-term financial strategy builds on prior work, including 2010 Blue Ribbon Commission recommendations and a 2019 Budgeting for Community Resilience report. Staff described four workstreams: a five-year long-term financial plan with guiding principles; alternative funding mechanisms and fee analysis; core service-level definition and prioritization; and a multi-year ballot strategy. She said the city already has a high proportion of dedicated revenues that limit flexibility and that reserves and diversified revenue will be central to the resiliency goal; staff noted a minimum reserve target across funds and cited the general fund reserve target.

On process, Skee said staff is meeting monthly with the City Council’s Financial Strategy Committee, coordinating an executive steering group, planning statistically valid polling in 2025 and 2026, and inviting boards and commissions to participate in Fund Our Future engagement between July and October. She said staff will present a council forum on June 12 to frame the community conversations.

Public and commissioner concerns

Commissioners and other meeting participants raised equity and tax-burden concerns. Speakers at the meeting repeated two themes: that shifting revenue from sales tax to property tax can increase burdens on residents on fixed incomes, and that nonprofit stakeholders have criticized prior ballot-authorized programs for directing more revenue to city capital projects than to nonprofit capital needs. One participant said the nonprofit share of the current 0.3% tax is too small to support significant nonprofit capital investments, and expressed reluctance to increase a tax that, in practice, has largely funded city infrastructure.

Staff cautioned that 2025 options are intended to be narrow “take care of what we have” measures focused on unmet capital and maintenance needs, and that the more comprehensive array of options would be developed with broader community engagement for 2026.

What staff asked commissions to do

Skee and other staff invited commissioners to participate in Fund Our Future engagement sessions planned for July–October, said staff will include commission input in a memo to council due later that week, and noted the city will update the unfunded needs list as departments submit revised lists for the 2026 budget process.

Ending

Staff emphasized that no final council decision was being made at the meeting; rather, the session was a preview and the first of many briefings and community conversations. Staff said narrowed ballot options and full community input would be presented to council by May 2026 and that additional briefings to boards and commissions will continue.