Aurora furlough closes city facilities on Friday with more closures planned

Aurora city offices were closed Friday for the first of four planned furlough days this year; an unpaid day off meant to help the city address a budget shortfall without raising taxes or laying off employees.

The city is required by its charter to adopt a balanced budget each year. To meet this requirement, the city council approved the city's 2026 budget in November 2025, which reduced spending and used one-time reserves to address a projected General Fund shortfall of more than $21 million.

Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte said the furloughs are part of a broader strategy to close a budget gap.

"Like a lot of major cities, we have a little bit of a budget deficit," Schulte said. "We looked at what we can do to increase revenue and bring the budget down so we didn't have to raise new taxes. We didn't have to lay off anybody."

The city council, city manager, and city attorney agreed on four furlough days spaced throughout the year, timed to coincide with holiday periods and the city's 26-week pay schedule, Schulte said.

"If we get toward the end of the year and our sales tax revenue is higher than we projected, we may not need the last two furlough days," Schulte added.

Essential public safety services, including police and fire, are exempt from the furloughs, but many other departments, including libraries, recreation centers, planning and zoning, and in-person water bill payment offices, were closed Friday.

For the one city worker, who asked to remain anonymous, the furlough day meant rearranging his Friday. 

"Today I worked a little bit at home, went to pick up my girlfriend, then came to the Stock Show," he said. "But I'd rather be at work getting paid."

While some of his coworkers welcomed the extra time off, he said there's a downside.

"It's a day off unpaid," he said. "These are really hard times right now. Most people just can't lose a day of work. I'm just trying to balance the whole money situation and get ahead of it before it gets ahead of us."

The employee said the furloughs feel like a trade-off.

"Yeah, it's cool because no one had to get laid off. But at the same time, a lot of people are losing hours at work or money that they need to survive or to live out here," he said. "I don't know if there's a bright side to this. You get a day off, I guess, but at the same time you've got to worry about your money, your spending, and all that stuff."

Furlough days:

• Friday, Jan. 16, 2026 (prior to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19) 
• Friday, April 10, 2026 
• Thursday, July 2, 2026 (prior to the Independence Day holiday on July 3) 
• Thursday, Dec. 24, 2026 (prior to Christmas Day on Dec. 25)