Denver Mayor Mike Johnston presents 2026 budget proposal
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston presented his 2026 budget proposal to city employees on Monday morning before he made the announcement city-wide. CBS Colorado Investigator Brian Maass was able to sit in on the meeting for city employees just about an hour before the public announcement of the budget proposal.
In a slideshow, Johnston reiterated the $200 million budget gap for next year's city budget but said he will maintain citywide priorities. He said the savings from previously announced layoffs will make up $118 million from the previous estimate of $104 million.
"The $104 million to $118 million shift is a combination of vacancy or staff reductions made by independent agencies or made by other elected officials and some on-call staffing adjustments we made in places like Parks & Rec," said Johnston.
Johnston said that Denver is not alone in its struggle amid cutbacks.
"This is obviously a trend you are seeing now around the country. Pew Research Center just came out to show that 20 of the 25 largest cities are all facing budget cuts on a significant scale," said Johnston.
There will also be a $10 million reduction in IT contracts, and new property tax statements will be postcards instead of letters to save money. In other ways to save money, the city will reduce marketing campaigns around marijuana use prevention and job recruiting.
He said they will consolidate points of entry in public buildings to save on security costs.
Johnston said recreation center hours, street sweeping, trash pickup and police patrols will stay the same with no reduction in services.
He also said there wouldn't be any cuts to employee health or retirement benefits. Johnston also said he will protect cold-weather shelter funding during the winter months.
He also said no new taxes or fees will be put in place to make up for the shortfall in the 2026 budget.
Johnston talked about some savings coming from changes to the homeless programs, especially the $11 million that will be saved from the closure of two homeless facilities the city was renting for those experiencing homelessness.
"As you know, the Radisson hotel we closed this year, this budget will call to close the Comfort Inn next year. For us, this is good progress to show that the system we have is working. Which was when we first opened these hotels, the purpose was to meet the overflow needs and move these people off the street and into transitional housing," said Johnston. "That means we can get people moved out of transitional housing and into permanent housing faster."
One Denver Fire Department class will be eliminated, but Johnston mentioned that DFD is at full strength.
Johnston said that the city is taking steps to improve traffic issues through more photo enforcement.
The city will also begin to rent greenhouse space to the public for the first time, creating a revenue stream for the city.
