plan-boulder

2026 Boulder Budget - Costly Projects

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 02:47:36 GMT

Several projects in the works deserve a closer look.

Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

Boulder’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) oversees a broad range of improvements in Boulder from streets and utilities to city owned buildings. For buildings, the Facilities Master Plan (FMP) [1] guides decisions on whether to perform deep retrofits or demolish and build new, but it overlooks a third, more sustainable option: ongoing maintenance.

South Boulder Recreation Center

The South Boulder Recreation Center, built in 1972, has served for more than five decades and received limited maintenance. Years of neglect have led to several system failures, including the boiler that heats the pool, as well as general wear and tear typical of an institutional building. A third-party condition report [2] from 2025 found some minor structural issues but noted that the facility remains in relatively good shape. Despite its better energy efficiency and generally sound condition, the South Boulder Recreation Center is currently slated for replacement. However, the city has not yet determined what the new facility will include or how much it will cost.

South Boulder Recreation Center

East Boulder Recreation Center

The East Boulder Recreation Center, built in 1992, has been identified as deficient in both function and energy efficiency [1]. To address these shortcomings, the city is proposing a deep energy retrofit that would "place the facility on a path toward environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and financial stewardship". The total cost of this retrofit is estimated at $53 million [3].

In the 2026 budget, the city plans to raise daily recreation center rates by 25% in 2026 [4].

East Boulder Recreation Center

West Campus

The new West Campus will be located on the former site of Boulder Community Hospital, a property the city purchased in 2015 for $40 million [5]. Demolition of the hospital was completed in 2023 at an estimated cost of $16 million [6]. The Pavilion medical office building on the site, originally 62,500 square feet, was initially intended to serve as new office space for up to 250 city staff members. The rest of the property is slated for housing and mixed-use development. In 2020, the cost to convert the Pavilion into city offices was estimated between $49 million and $58 million [6].

With recent increases in staff, plans for the site have since expanded. The Pavilion will now include an additional 55,100 square feet, including a new fourth floor [7]. With these changes, the estimated cost of converting the Pavilion into city offices has risen dramatically to $140 million [8]. Much of the funding for this project is already in place after a $100 million bond sale in 2025. [8][9]

Alpine-Balsam West Campus

Sources

[1] Facilities Master Plan

[2] Recreation Center Building Report 2025

[3] 2025 Budget p316

[4] Boulder Reporting Lab 9/11/2025

[5] 2016 Budget p143

[6] 2020 Budget p171

[7] Planning Board Item 6A p44

[8] 2025 Budget p317

[9] 2026 Budget Government Capital Fund

2026 Boulder Budget - Overview

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:01:29 GMT

2026 is a watershed moment for Boulder's budget.

Like so many of our fellow community members, PLAN-Boulder County is alarmed by the trends of our city’s financial condition. We have spent the past half year analyzing the data that is available through the city’s budget website, and have found that Boulder’s budget priorities are heading in the wrong direction . Boulder is at a fiscal crossroads, and the warning signs are clear. City government is growing more expensive, tax revenues are stagnating, and new “fees” are being quietly fast-tracked to fill the gap without voter approval or much public scrutiny. At the same time, major capital projects are ballooning in size and cost, even as basic maintenance needs are deferred.

In the aftermath of COVID staffing levels have increased significantly, serving as a major contributor to the 2026 budget shortfall. This post details the issues: 2026 Boulder Budget - Staffing

In that same time period sales tax revenues have declined, which is covered in this post: 2026 Boulder Budget- Sales Tax

In order to deal with the reduction in sales tax revenue, city services like transportation maintenance are now being moved to fees on property. Read about it in this post: 2026 Boulder Budget - Transportation Maintenance Fee

Another contributors to budget woes are projects that grow in scope, described here: 2026 Boulder Budget - Costly Projects

2026 Boulder Budget - Staffing

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:13:34 GMT

Since the pandemic staffing levels have risen significantly.

Staffing Levels

Between 2019 and 2025 the city of Boulder increased staffing by 191 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees. Graph 1 shows 1426 FTE in 2019 and 1539 FTE in 2023 for a net increase of 113 FTE.

In 2024 the Library was spun off reducing staff by 78 FTE. Those positions were distributed to other departments and by 2025 the workforce was once again at 1539.

Even though 2026 is an austerity budget, overall staffing rises to 1548 with the addition of city council members as full time employees.

The total increase from 2019 to 2026 is 200 FTE. This representing a 14% increase in headcount.

Graph 1 - Staffing Levels (FTE)

Table 1 - Staffing Levels (FTE) by Department 2015-2026

Source:

Staffing Changes

From 2019 to 2025 some departments experienced significant changes.

Two departments effectively ceased to exist over this period:
The City Clerk’s Office was folded into the City Manager’s Office
Library & Arts was spun off into a Library district.
Planning, Housing & Sustainability shows a -12% change as a result of moving code enforcement to the Police department.
Communications grew 116% over that period.

The increase in staff size seen between 2019 and 2025 has the knock-on effect that support services also have to grow to service the additional FTEs. Table 2 shows the changes to staff size for each department. The 4 fastest growing departments are providing primarily internal support to themselves and public facing departments.

Resources required to support a growing workforce are not limited to additional FTEs but also includes employment benefits such as health insurance, pensions, real estate required to house the additional FTEs and Information Technology to provide digital support .

Table 2 - Staffing Changes from 2019 to 2025

2026 shows little growth among departments except for:

In 2024 Ballot item 2C passed, which increases City Council pay to 40% of AMI. This accounts for the +9 FTE in City Council numbers
The big change is moving 24 FTE to Planning, Housing & Sustainability (PHS)
Community Vitality transfers parking enforcement to PHS.
Police transfer code enforcement positions to PHS.

Table 3 - Staffing Changes from 2025 to 2026

Source:

Staffing Costs

The costs of increasing staff size over the last 6 years as well as changes proposed for the 2026 budget can be seen in the Combined Budget Summary shown in Graph 2 and Table 4. This summary aggregates the costs of personnel, internal services, operating expenses, debt service and capital projects.

What this data shows is:

From 2019 to 2025 the cost of personnel rose from $149M to $205M or 37%.
The cost of internal services increased from $17M in 2019 to $62M in 2025 or 264%.
For 2026 the amount devoted to capital projects will be sharply lower than the previous 3 years.
In the face of no staff reductions, the capital budget is absorbing all of the cuts, mainly for Facilities & Fleet.

Graph 2 - Combined Budget Summary

Table 4 - Combined Budget Summary 2017-2026

Source:

Peer Cities

When looking at the performance of an institution it is useful to compare them to their peers.

The comparative metric for Table 5 is FTEs per 100,000 residents of a city.

In this group Boulder is in the top 5 for most FTE per resident.

Table 5 - Staffing Levels Among Peer Cities

Source:

FTE Data: 2025 budget documents downloaded from the peer cities
Population Data: https://worldpopulationreview.com/

2026 Boulder Budget - Sales Tax

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 02:23:30 GMT

Boulder sales tax revenue is flat and is anticipated to decline in coming years.

Traditionally sales tax has been the largest source of discretionary revenue in the city budget, funding a broad range of programs. In recent years sales tax growth has slowed peaking in 2023.

Data provided by the city [1] shows revenue by location. Graph 1 shows sales/use tax collections:

Inside the city of Boulder peaking in 2022 at $86.2M
Outside the city (online, catalog and other sales) rising 86% to $51.5M in 2024.
In Gunbarrel - peaking in 2023 at $8M
From the County Clerk (auto sales) - flat at $6M
All other Boulder rising 47% to $14M

For a city like Boulder that has traditionally been a regional retail hub, to have declining sales within the city is a troubling trend. There are several causes that are worth considering:

The loss of businesses due to changes in land use that pushes housing into areas previously zoned for commercial and industrial.
Changes to transportation and land use that drive consumers out of the city
Social issues that make shopping in Boulder a less desirable proposition.
The transition from brick and mortar to online shopping.

In the face of declining sales tax the city is on a path to create new funding sources through fees on property instead of consumption. The 2026 budget proposes a Transportation Maintenance Fee .

Graph 1 - Sales/use tax 2017 to 2024.

Table 1 - Change in sales/use tax collection from 2019 to 2024.

Table 2 - Sales/Use tax collection by geography (2017-2024)

Sources

2026 Boulder Budget - Transportation Maintenance Fee

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 02:23:25 GMT

The 2026 Budget is set to levy a new fee on all property in Boulder.

Transportation Maintenance Fee

The 2026 Boulder budget includes a new fee that will be levied on all properties in Boulder [1]. The purpose of this fee is to assess the fair share of a property on the transportation system.

Single family homes will pay $54 per year. Multi family will pay $42 per year for every dwelling in a building. Commercial rates for a variety of categories including Retail, Office and Industrial will be calculated on a square foot basis. Private schools will pay on a per student basis.

The University of Colorado, Boulder Valley School District and RTD are exempt from the fee. As are Amazon Delivery, UPS, FedEx and DHL.

Since this surcharge is a fee and not a tax, there is no requirement for a vote under TABOR. Likewise, annual increases of the fee require only a vote of the council.

For reference, Boulder has used fees (service charges) to fund maintenance and expansion of the Water system for over 10 years. Over this period service charges have steadily increased. Table 1 below shows the inflation of water service charges.

The long term financial strategy process that gave birth to this new fee seeks to “Protect underfunded core city services like parks, transportation and public safety”. This involves moving funding for these services from sales tax revenues such as the Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety (CCRS) tax to fees levied on properties in Boulder. [2]

In fact, the CCRS which was originally promoted as a way to deal with the backlog of transportation maintenance, is seeking renewal in the upcoming election. Not because it is expiring, but because the city is currently maxed out on its bonding capacity and by extending the expiration date of the CCRS will be able to borrow more money.

The Transportation Maintenance Fee is the first service to get a dedicated fee. For the city, fixed property based fees are desirable because they can be levied on every property equally without any need to consider the condition, size or value of the property.

In many ways this class of fee is an equivalent of a Lump-Sum tax, where everyone pays the same, regardless of income, wealth or even how much they actually use the transportation system. Lump-Sum taxes are a classic example of a regressive tax.

When the Transportation Maintenance Fee takes effect, expect significant yearly increases. In coming years, it is very likely that parks, public safety and city facilities will receive their own dedicated fees that will inflate, unabated into the future. For local businesses, the Transportation Maintenance Fee repr esents an additional headwind in comparison to on-line retail and will be passed along to the consumer through increased prices. It is also worth noting that sales taxes will not be reduced as a result of this fee.

Sources:

Water Service Charges

Service fees on monthly water bills in the City of Boulder have risen steadily at a rate of 5 to 12% on an annual basis. Over the last 10 years the monthly total of these fees has risen 163%.

According to the city website: "Utility revenue increases are considered by City Council in October of each year as part of the citywide budget process. Rates are set so that sufficient revenues are generated to support operations, maintenance and improvements for each of the city utilities."

Table 1. Water Service Charges - 2015 to 2025

Data in Table 1 was extracted from historical water bills on a residential property with a 7,000 square foot lot size and a 3/4" meter. These fees are flat rate, which is to say that they are charged regardless of whether the property uses 0 or 20,000 gallons in a month.

2025 Ballot Issue Endorsements

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 22:31:21 GMT

Here are the PLAN-Boulder County positions on local ballot initiatives.

City of Boulder Ballot Issues 2A & 2B - No

These measures (Ordinances 8710 and 8711) authorize the extension of a 0.3 percent Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety and Use Tax (CCRS) and the increase of debt to build and maintain capital improvements. This tax, before any extension, will not sunset until 2036.

PLAN-Boulder opposes this tax for the following reasons:

The funding priorities, program goals and effectiveness of outcomes are opaque to voters;
The funding strategy of continually asking voters for new or extended taxes to resolve budget shortfalls is shortsighted and near the end of what voters can support;
The request for extending this tax in perpetuity is a much too open-ended authorization of future indebtedness.

The CCRS Tax is a .3% dedicated Sales and Use tax funds city capital projects and the maintenance to take care of them. It also provides some funds for community non-profits that serve the Boulder community. Originally approved by voters as the "Community, Culture and Safety Tax" in 2014 and subsequently extended in 2017, the tax underwent another extension in 2021 under its current name and will run until 2036. If approved, this proposed extension is set to run in perpetuity.

The city will use the funding generated by extending the CCRS tax for additional capital improvement projects and to increase the City’s ability to take on debt. This debt would then be repaid with dollars collected through the CCRS tax in the future. The city proposes this additional taxation without a sunset provision to accelerate the development of future projects now rather than in the future.

In considering whether to support this tax or not, PLAN-Boulder asked if the city should continue to meet its revenue shortfalls with new and/or extended taxes, almost all of which are Sales and Use taxes. We do not agree with relying on the voters to support this method of financial management. PLAN-Boulder recommends that there be an extensive evaluation, that includes the public, of all our city programs and facilities. This evaluation would reveal programs and services that may be outdated, ineffective or low priority. To the extent that any of this evaluation currently takes place in the internal staff budgeting process, it is invisible to the public. By the time the budget makes it to public consideration, it is fully baked, with little to no opportunity for this kind of evaluation by the voters.

We recommend that a new Blue Ribbon Commission of Boulder citizens (similar to the very successful 2008 and 2010 Blue Ribbon Commissions that studied and reported on revenues and expenditures) should be formed to evaluate and report on the programs and facilities that the City currently funds and make recommendations for determining their effectiveness and priority. The goals of a Blue Ribbon Commission would be to both illuminate the city finances and to provide a much clearer picture of those finances to the public. Then voters will have the information needed to approve or reject future taxes.

Boulder County Ballot Issue 1A - Yes

This issue is an extension of the existing 0.15% countywide Open Space Sales and Use tax in perpetuity, for the purpose of acquiring, improving, managing, and maintaining Open Space lands and other Open Space property interests including agriculture.

PLAN-Boulder County supports this issue. The City and County Open Space programs are among the most popular and successful of any that are supported by our taxes. They are vital to protection of the critical natural resources that are being destroyed by growth and development. A continuation of existing funding for Open Space is important and is well worth a vote for approval.

While PLAN-Boulder does not generally support taxes in perpetuity, preferring to see specific purposes with timelines attached, the need for funding to protect our Open Space assets will be needed in perpetuity, and for this reason PLAN-Boulder supports the extension of the Open Space tax in perpetuity.

Boulder County Ballot Issue 1B - Yes

This issue is a new sales tax for Mental and Behavioral Health funding that proposes a new Sales and Use tax of 0.15% for 3 years to address unmet needs of youth, adults, families, unhoused individuals, and older adults in Boulder County.

PLAN-Boulder supports this issue with reservations. We wanted more detail about exactly what this tax might deliver. There have been many requests for the County Commissioners to take more time to identify what services would be provided, how much funding would be distributed, and to whom. There has been significant support expressed by the community for a treatment facility rather than spreading the funding among many service providers. The Commissioners took note of these comments and reduced the duration of the tax to three years to fill current needs, especially since federal funding has been lost. PLAN-Boulder encourages the county to use this time to develop a more specific plan for what the tax will be spent on and how the revenue will be allocated.

2025 City Council Candidate Endorsements

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 21:33:29 GMT

PLAN-Boulder County is limiting our endorsements of 2025 City Council candidates to three, even though there are four seats in the running. After the Collaborative Forum in which PLAN-Boulder, Open Boulder and Better Boulder jointly sponsored a candidate forum, the board also evaluated candidates’ responses to the PLAN-Boulder questionnaire and most significantly, assessed our experiences with the four incumbents over their past term. Based on these deliberations, we determined that our three endorsed candidates- Mark Wallach, Jenny Robins, and Rob Kaplan – are the ones that best support PLAN-Boulder’s values and policies.

Mark Wallach

PLAN-Boulder County endorses the re-election of Mark Wallach to the Boulder City Council.

Wallach states in his campaign literature and in his public appearances that he is not driven by ideology, but only by results. His test for every policy is will it work? Can we afford it? And will it make life better in Boulder? Our observation of Mark’s work over his past council terms is that he does exactly that, and more importantly, his view of making life better in Boulder is better for everyone, not just his ideologically simpatico constituents. He publicizes his concerns and questions with staff work on council projects and policies by raising them on the council Hotline, so Boulder citizens have some idea about his thoughts on an issue. His top issues of affordable middle-income housing, fiscal responsibility, wildfire resilience, and public safety and infrastructure match up well with issues of concern to PLAN-Boulder. Unfortunately for Mark and for us, he is infrequently able to find support among his council colleagues, so we need to elect new council members who can act with Mark to better represent the broader community.

https://www.wallachforcouncil.com/

Jenny Robins

PLAN-Boulder County endorses the election of Jenny Robins to the Boulder City Council.

We think our city council needs real leadership and Jenny has demonstrated her abilities by rising to the highest level of leadership in her civic roles. She chairs the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, co-chairs the Boulder Chamber of Commerce’s Community Affairs Council, and is a mentor in the University of Colorado’s Boulder-CU Leadership Program. Robin’s campaign focuses on the need to provide good governance to the entire community, which is at the heart of PLAN-Boulder’s mission. She advocates for our local government listening to its citizens closely, communicating clearly, following through for good results and very importantly, recognizing that good ideas can come from anywhere. She is promoting taking care of basics, such as reliable infrastructure, community safety, wildfire preparedness, and supporting local innovation while protecting the character and identity that make Boulder unique, with the update of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan as the basis of smart, long-term choices about our future. PLAN-Boulder is particularly supportive of Robins concern regarding the city’s financial situation and the potential of forming a citizen advisory group to help determine the priorities of the citizens.

https://jennyforboulder.com/

Rob Kaplan

PLAN-Boulder County endorses the election of Rob Kaplan to the Boulder City Council.

Kaplan’s 18 years of frontline experience as a former fire captain will give the council real leadership in one of Boulder’s most critical issues: wildfire mitigation. From his role as a fire captain and county-wide mutual aid representative, Kaplan understands the essential role that safety plays in building a thriving community. He is committed to improving the vitality of our downtown through better public safety, improved infrastructure and better support of small businesses. Kaplan identifies affordable middle-income housing as our critical housing need that is responsible for hollowing out of our workforce and increasing inequality of housing opportunities. This increases the number of in-commuters who live elsewhere and work in Boulder, with the related impacts to air quality, traffic congestion, and deterioration of our sense of community. Kaplan supports the Core Arterial Network (CAN) as an important structure of our transportation system, and believes we must implement it in a way that balances our community’s multiple needs. PLAN-Boulder feels that Kaplan’s lengthy experience in leadership positions, his clear grasp of our fundamental community issues, and ability to articulate potential solutions will make him a valuable member of the Boulder City Council.

https://www.rob4boulder.com/

PLAN-Boulder feels that we need some serious change in the makeup of our council. We therefore decided not to endorse any of the incumbents except Mark Wallach. They all demonstrated their knowledge of the city’s issues at the forum and in questionnaires, as would be expected, and had a laudable list of things they want to accomplish; however, was startling to hear the disconnect between what they view as their successes and how those same issues are viewed by the PLAN-Boulder board and the public.

PLAN-Boulder’s most serious concern with the incumbents is that even though they are elected at large to represent the entire community, there seems to be no willingness to hear from the half or more of the community that weren’t their election supporters. The “progressive” agenda that they are implementing has no room for compromises with other views in the community, nor willingness to engage with the many subject experts that abound in Boulder.

The comment we hear over and over from citizens is that they no longer make any effort to provide input on city issues since it seems to go into a black hole without response – that it makes no difference. What used to be an open forum at council meetings to communicate with our elected leaders has turned into a violent and confrontational exercise in futility that no one wants to put themselves through. We need change – and PLAN-Boulder endorses Mark Wallach, Jenny Robins and Rob Kaplan to bring us that change.

For our PLAN-Boulder members and supporters: if you feel compelled to vote for four candidates, we suggest you consider Rachel Rose Isaacson. Ms. Isaacson is young and relatively new to Boulder from Ohio. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Leadership, works part time as a barista, is a renter and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She identifies as progressive, but answered questions with an open-minded and informed thoughtfulness and an awareness of ecological principles. Her sparkling personality leads us to believe she could work well with colleagues.

https://www.rachelrose4boulder.com/

2025 City Council Candidates Forum

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 18:04:04 GMT

Watch the video recording of the Sept. 8, 2025 Forum to get to know who is running for 4 open City Council seats .

Credit: photo by Gnurps

PLAN-Boulder County Water Discussion

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 21:57:48 GMT

Plan-Boulder County convenes a panel of water experts to discuss issues and make recommendations for the upcoming Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan revision.

Legislative Candidate Forum

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 22:04:29 GMT

Watch the video recording of the 2024 Democratic Legislative Candidate Primary Forum

John Mirisch speaks at the PLAN-Boulder 2023 annual dinner

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 18:36:01 GMT

John Mirisch, city council member and former mayor of Beverly Hills, CA gave an insightful talk at the 2023 PLAN-Boulder County annual dinner and meeting on September 8, 2023.

Mirisch spoke about increasing housing affordability in American cities through anti-speculation measures and the necessity of understanding a respecing the limits of growth.