The city's budget office says the city is not hiring. Denver's city job listings tell a different story. How can we trust them to be truthful about the budget?
Denver officials scrambling to close a projected $70 million budget deficit are considering moves such as creating a fee for trash collection, releasing nonviolent offenders from jail and delaying street repairs.
But a review of sales-tax revenue collected in the first four months of this year shows matters may get even worse.
"We'd have to improve our revenue significantly to keep on pace," said Stephanie Adams, the manager of performance initiatives in the city's budget and management office. "It's very likely we'll have to revise our revenue projections downward again."
It hurts to watch the Denver budget forum held on June 18. Watch it on Channel 8. Budget Manager Stephanie Adams was condescending and could not answer basic questions about Denver sales tax and how it compares to nearby counties. In this part, you can watch Fire Chief Nick Nuanes and one of Mayor Hickenlooper's staff people smirk behind the back of a citizen making a complaint. This is the real attitude of Denver city government about citizen input.
Denver needs to cut $70 million from its budget. Taxpayers fear the city will shift costs onto us rather than make real cuts. These fears get more intense when you read the damning expose in Westword.
Denver homeowners are taxed for our wastewater runoff. The money is supposed to be used for maintaining storm drains. But Mayor Hickenlooper is using these tax dollars to pay for almost everything except the wastewater system.
How can we trust the city to tell us what budget cuts need to be made when they are using tricky accounting like this?
According to an AP report, Denver officials have decided to use all-mail balloting in November.
Switching to all-mail elections in 2010 is one of the cost-saving ideas proposed by the city for public discussion. For 2009, the discussion is obviously over.
See other 2010 cost-saving suggestions by taking the budget-cut survey.
Hello, Denver. This is a new forum-type blog where I hope we can talk frankly about the city of Denver. All are welcome to join in and participate. No, my real name is not McGuffey. You don't have to use your real name here, either, but you can if you want.
Here's a little bit about the motivation for starting this forum....
Dear Denver Home Page DearDenver welcomes free public conversation about Denver city government. The owner of this website is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted by users. Read and participate at your own risk. Contact: info-at-deardenver.com RSS
