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Budget concerns highlighted in State of the County

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After Arapahoe County commissioners highlighted dozens of infrastructure projects and social initiatives they successfully supported in 2022, the State of the County address on June 7 took on a more serious tone.

“We have a substantial funding crisis,” District 5 Commissioner Bill Holen said.

American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds sustained many of the county’s initiatives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as those funds run out, the county is facing the fact that in ation, increasing demand for services and TABOR restrictions have created a serious nancial problem that must be solved.

County accomplishments and ARPA funds space for young people and older adults to enjoy.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am about this,” Centennial Mayor Stephanie Piko said during the June 7 grand opening. “ is was a long time coming.”

YMCA of Metro Denver President and CEO Sue Glass, a resident of Centennial herself, explained the initial conversations about a partnership with Centennial centered on how to address social isolation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social isolation di ers from loneliness in that social isolation is a lack of social connections, while loneliness is the feeling of being alone regardless of the amount of social contact.

Older adults are at an increased risk for loneliness and social isolation as they are more likely to live alone, face health issues and experience the loss of family or friends, per the CDC. Social isolation signi cantly increases a person’s risk

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed ARPA to help the country recover economically from the impacts of the pandemic and recession.

Arapahoe County received a onetime allocation of $127.5 million to support vulnerable populations, businesses, health initiatives, housing, infrastructure, education, public health and county operations.

During the State of the County address, commissioners highlighted that ARPA helped them support the GOALS program, which stands for “generational opportunities to achieve longterm success.”

In partnership with Family Tree Colorado, Arapahoe County gave $1.2 million in one-time funding to support the creation of a GOALS early childhood education center for families experiencing homelessness.

“We did this because the GOALS program recently completed an evaluation of its rst cohort and the results were amazing,” District 1 Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully said. “We are seeing generational poverty stop in its tracks. And we’re seeing people heal and strive for themselves.” e county also contributed $1 million in ARPA funds to the Ready to Work program, which broke ground in early June for a new workforce and housing program in Englewood. ey also used ARPA funds to support mental health services, a highlight being their allocation of $5 million to fund a new crisis and acute care center at Aurora Mental Health & Recovery.

Overall, the county gave over $23 million to support programs related to homelessness and housing.

“We know that many of our residents are still struggling,” WarrenGully said. “ e long-term e ects of the pandemic have been brutal on our emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. As a county, we want to to upgrade the medical area of the county jail.

“While this doesn’t solve all of the jail’s aging infrastructure problems, it does create 37 new beds for mental and behavioral observation,” District 2 Commissioner Jessica CampbellSwanson said. “ is will improve our level of care, thereby reducing the negative impacts of detention on those struggling with physical and behavioral health issues.”

Outside of ARPA funds, the com- faces by its most vulnerable populations. ey also celebrated their programs for Veterans and the birth of Arapahoe County Public Health, which started providing services to residents at the beginning of the year after the dissolution of the TriCounty Health Department.

Arapahoe County’s funding crisis District 3 Commissioner Je Baker said the county is reaching the end of its ARPA funds.

“Although we’ve been able to do some amazing things and shepherd our community through COVID, almost all of the programs we’ve highlighted today are at risk of going away,” he said. “We need to make some tough decisions on where and how to apply our very limited budget.”

Baker said current growth projections predict the county will have 800,000 people by the year 2030. Baker said the county’s current revenues will put essential services such as public safety, human services, mental health programs and road maintenance at risk.

Keeping up with road maintenance is already a problem for the county, in which 40% of the roads are in “poor” or “very poor” condition and there are more than $500 million in backlog in deferred maintenance and capital projects, Campbell-Swanson said.

“A lot of people are asking us, ‘What happened? What went wrong that you guys are in this position now?’” Baker said in an interview with Colorado Community Media. “Nothing went wrong … the fact is that we were headed in this direction even before the pandemic.”

One driving factor to the nancial problem, Baker said, is in ation.

“ ese price uctuations of steel, asphalt and the cost of labor -- so the projects of working on our roads, which include asphalt, concrete and labor -- all of those prices have gone up.” in ation, he said.

TABOR, an amendment to the state constitution, limits the amount of revenue governments in the state can retain and spend and requires voter approval for certain tax increases.

Warren-Gully said the costs of materials and labor are rising much faster than TABOR takes account for. She also said the growing needs and growing population of Arapahoe County means higher demands for its services.

“We need to be able to keep up with that,” she said. “People are needing our support, we’re providing it, and they’re being successful. But these issues are complex and they take a lot of work and a lot of dedication and funding.”

Potential solutions

“To reach our vision for Arapahoe County, we have to stabilize our funding sources and modernize our nances,” Baker said.

In the coming months, the commissioners will consider several options to funding challenges, District 4 Councilmember Leslie Summey said.

One option is to ask voters to approve a new sales tax, which would create a dedicated funding stream for speci c services, she said. is would be modeled after the county’s open spaces sales tax.

Another option would be a ballot measure asking voters to remove the revenue cap of TABOR, an act commonly known as “debrucing.”

Commissioners will decide prospective ballot measures by August. If the commissioners decide to move forward with these options, the items would be in front of voters at the November 7, 2023 election.

“Nothing’s o the table,” Baker said. “We’re looking at (potential sales tax and debrucing ballot measures). But that doesn’t mean that we’re stopping trying to save as well. We’re continuing to tighten our belt and do more with less.”

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