Financial hardship makes for strange bedfellows

Financial hardship makes for strange bedfellows

BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER

In November 2018, military combat veteran and political newcomer Democrat Jason Crow unseated military combat veteran and five-term United States Representative Republican Mike Coffman in the sixth congressional district (CD6) of Colorado. CD6 includes all of Aurora, Greenwood Village, Highlands Ranch, Brighton, Hen derson, and Columbine Valley, along with portions of Denver , Centennial, and Littleton.

Possessed of a servant’s heart from the time he hid his age to join the United States Army at 17, Coffman soon found another important calling. On November 5, 2019, he was elected mayor of the City of Aurora, population 374,114 according to the latest available data from the United States Census Bureau. Like most elected posi tions in municipal government in Colorado and throughout our country, Coffman’s job is non-partisan.

On April 22, Coffman and Crow published a joint op-ed in the Denver Post, pointing out the crucial need for additional support from Congress for “state and local governments who are on the front lines of this pandemic.” Acknowl edging the political reality head-on, the two elected officials said, “W e come together to demand that legislation be driven not by ideology or party lines, but by the needs of our communities.” Coffman and Crow said that they anticipated that the City of Aurora, which has an nounced layoffs and/or furloughs of 576 employees, would face “an estimated $25 million budget cut.” The mayor and the congressman pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic is “the most pressing issue facing Aurora. And Brighton. And Greenwood Village. And ev ery city and state across the country.” They called on “Congress to include economic stimulus for our cities and towns in the next round of funding,” adding, “Our cities can’t wait any longer.”

As the awareness that the coro navirus pandemic enveloping the United States took hold starting in February, the United States Congress took action to help individuals and companies, passing three laws to provide economic relief: 1) Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appro priations Act on March 4, 2020; 2) Families First Coronavirus Response Act on March 18, 2020; and 3) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on March 27. There has been talk of a fourth aid package, but nothing has been decided or prom ised and talks are currently stalled.

Only the CARES Act included economic assistance for state and local government as one combined category. It totaled $150 billion. According to the United States De partment of the Treasury, the available funding from that amount, for the entire state of Colorado, is estimated to be $2.23 billion of the total and must be used for expenses that 1) were necessary and incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency; 2) were not accounted for in the local enti ty’s budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020; and 3) were incurred between March 30 and December 30, 2020.

Most of Colorado’s 61 home rule cities rely heavily on sales and use taxes for their general fund revenue that is used to pay for all the employees who provides public safety, street maintenance, public works, building permits and inspections, and municipal code enforcement, along with overall city government administration. With the months-long statewide shutdown of retail, restaurants, and entertainment, sales and use tax dollars have largely dried up and cities have no way to recoup their losses without help from the feder al government. That is why Crow and Cof fman did not hesitate to come together for the greater good of their community.

A detailed review by The Villager of their approved 2020 budgets as the year began showed that the City and County of Denver expected to received 51 percent of its total 2020 general fund revenue of $1.486 billion from sales and use taxes. In Aurora, 68 percent of total 2020 general fund revenue of $377.4 million was budgeted to be derived from sales and use taxes. In Greenwood Village, 69 percent of 2020 general fund revenue of $48.4 million was expected to come from sales and use taxes. In Centennial, 65 percent of all gen eral fund revenue of $64.1 million was seen as coming from sales and use taxes. Those numbers clearly demonstrate that sales and use taxes are the most important com ponent of most Colorado cities’ budgets. One exception is Cherry Hills Village (CHV), which has very few retail establishments. Its largest source of revenue is proper ty tax, followed in second place by use tax on automobiles purchased by its residents. People are buying fewer cars right now, so CHV will also be affected.

As a result of their current and expected revenue shortages, other cities have begun announcing fur loughs and/or layoffs of city employees in addition to those in Aurora. The numbers of employees announced so far who will be out of work temporarily or permanently include 737 in Boulder, 280 in Loveland, 235 in Broomfield, and 58 in Littleton as of this writing.