By Nia Bender
COLORADO SPRINGS – Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers presented a balanced budget for 2021 to the City Council on Monday. The proposed General Fund budget is $348.9 million, which is an increase of 5.3% over the 2020 budget. The 17.6% increase is because of the CARES ACT money received by El Paso County for expenses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While money from the federal government was to be used on Coronavirus costs, it can also be used to bolster the payroll for police and fire services.
The pandemic has caused a lot of issues for the City of Colorado Springs and Mayor Suthers says it does appear that things have stabilized a bit from earlier this spring. He says they’re hoping things will continue at the current pace, but it’s difficult to know if that’s the case when the next possible shutdown could be looming in the future with the virus. You can read the entire budget here.
Two million dollars of the budget would be used to pay for ten new sworn police positions and eight new fire positions. It would also pay for new equipment, which includes re-establishing a dedicated Hazardous Materials response team. Since the downturn took place, they’ve had to cross-staff an engine with hazmat, which is not a perfect scenario.
The City Council is scheduled to have a budget work session on October 20th, and a budget public hearing and town hall is scheduled for October 26th. The first reading of the budget ordinance is expected on November 24th, with the second one taking place on December 8th.
Here’s the budget breakdown from News5’s Colette Bordelon.
