plan-boulder

2026 City Council Candidates Forum

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 22:26:04 GMT

Watch the video recording of the Sept. 2, 2026 Forum to get to know who is running for Mayor and the 5 open City Council seats .

2026 PLAN-Boulder County Endorsements

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:21:49 GMT

PLAN-Boulder County

Allyn Feinberg

feinberga@comcast.net

303-447-8513

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PLAN-Boulder County Has Made Our Endorsements for Boulder’s Next Elected Leaders

PLAN-Boulder County has endorsed the following candidates for Mayor and City Council for the 2026 November election. Our endorsements are based on the combined candidate forum held by PLAN Boulder County, Open Bouler and Better Boulder, and our PLAN-Boulder County Questionnaire.

Mayor:

Because Boulder’s Mayor is elected using Ranked Choice Voting, PLAN-Boulder County’s primary endorsement is for Aquiles LaGrave . Our endorsement for a second place vote is Taishya Adams .

For more details on Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) go to https://bouldercolorado.gov/guide/ranked-choice-voting-guide

City Council :

Dave Martus

Ryan Jamieson

Tina Marquis

Ryan Schuchard

Tara Winer

PLAN-Boulder has endorsed these candidates because they provide a broad range of experience, good communication with the citizens, concern about good governance and the city’s financial condition, and expertise in areas of concern to PLAN-Boulder. We feel that they will be well-prepared to exert the kind of change we need, with good oversight and more effective public engagement. We urge voters to check out the candidates’ web sites, attend a candidate forum or a candidate event to become better informed for voting.

PLAN-Boulder County’s mission has been protecting the environment and enhancing Boulder County’s unique character since 1959. We are a future-focused, citizen-led grassroots activist organization that advocates for public - not special - interests using education, political action, and encouragement of good governance. plan-boulder.org

Ballots will be mailed on October 2, 2026 and must be returned by election Day, November 3, 2026.

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.

Sales tax is the largest source of 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.