On Tuesday, Dec. 15, City Council approved Lone Tree’s budget for 2021, which includes allocating funds from both the working and capital reserves. The City, like many sales tax-funded communities, was impacted significantly in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 related business closures and restrictions. Decreases in revenue are still projected to continue into 2021 resulting in Council approving $1.5M in working reserve funds to be utilized along with $2.8M from capital reserves to balance next year’s budget.
“We are fortunate that prior Council action established and funded a healthy working reserve to mitigate against unanticipated revenue shortfalls. Unfortunately, the pandemic coupled with the increasing shift to online shopping will have ongoing implications to City revenues,” said Mayor Jackie Millet. “It is now the responsibility of this Council to ensure our City’s financial position remains strong into the future.”
Early on during the pandemic, City staff identified expense reductions, including capital projects that could be deferred or canceled, to help ensure services to residents such as snow removal, street maintenance and trash and recycling, among others, were not impacted.
“City Council and staff worked hard to maintain the high level of service that our community is accustomed to while also evaluating expense reductions,” said Millet. “We are also very grateful for our regional funding partnerships. Thanks to our collaborative efforts, we’ve been able to minimize the impact felt by residents.”
Some of the larger projects planned for 2021 include the repaving of Lincoln Avenue from I-25 to the City’s western border, as well as, several other transportation design projects which will be funded in future years through grants and partnerships.
Each year, the City Manager and staff prepare an annual budget that serves as the funding plan for the policies, goals and service levels as determined by City Council. The budget process includes multiple budget work sessions with Council, followed by a public draft budget and a public hearing. Finally, the budget is presented to Council for consideration for adoption in December. For more details on the budget, click here.