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 inflation, increasing demand for services and TABOR restrictions have created a serious financial problem that must be solved.

County accomplishments and ARPA funds

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 one-time 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 first 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.”

The 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.

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

They 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.

“We know that many of our residents are still struggling,” Warren-Gully said. “The longterm effects of the pandemic have been brutal on our emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. As a county, we want to ensure that everyone has access to the things they need to live better lives.”

The board also allocated funding, with the support of ARPA dollars, 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 Campbell-Swanson said. “This 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 commissioners also highlighted the county’s housing study, water study and transportation master plan that will help the county to create long-term solutions to many of the issues faces by its most vulnerable populations.

They 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 Tri-County Health Department.

Arapahoe County’s funding crisis

District 3 Commissioner Jeff 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 financial problem, Baker said, is inflation.

“These price fluctuations 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.”

With the county’s population growing, there are more people paying property taxes, he said. But property tax increases limited by TABOR have not risen to the level of inflation, 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 finances,” 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 specific services, she said. This 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 off 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.”