1-Color
January 10, 2014
75 cents Arapahoe County, Colorado | Volume 93, Issue 47 A publication of
englewoodherald.net
Work begins on 2015 budget Englewood officials start process to prepare next year’s financial plan By Tom Munds
tmunds@coloradocommunity media.com
are telling us we need to solve,” said House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver. “We don’t need to rehash the same fights we fought over last year.” But Democrats won’t have much a choice. Besides gun legislation, Cadman said that his party will introduce bills that seek “fixes” to an election reform bill last session, one that created same-day voter registration in Colorado. Also, look for a bill from House Republicans that would scale back legislation signed into law last year, which doubled the renewable-energy mandate for rural electric cooperatives. “Since it passed, the passion from the people in rural Colorado about how
Although 2014 has just begun, Englewood officials have already started preliminary discussions about next year’s budget. “Preparing the budget stretched over most of the year,” said Frank Gryglewicz, finance director. “Our office is now beginning to gather the information we need to prepare a 2015 budget forecast. I expect we’ll have an overview and begin the budget planning process $90.1 million — sometime in Projected total city revenue February.” collections for 2014 The budget $96.5 million — process beEstimated total city gins with the spending for 2014 finance depart56.4 percent — ment developAmount of city revenue ing a fiscal forethat comes from sales and cast predicting use taxes in a typical year revenues and spending for the coming year. That is followed by meetings where department directors provide preliminary estimations of spending for the year to the city manager. Additional meetings are held to evaluate spending estimates in light of forecast revenues. The city manager and department heads meet with city council a couple of times and, by November or December, the council reviews the proposed budget. This year, for the first time, the citizen’s budget advisory committee will be involved in the budget preparation process. Last year, the city council appointed several individuals to the citizen’s budget advisory committee. The committee attended meeting and briefings in 2013 to learn about the budget preparation process. This year, expectations are the residents will make budget recommendations. “Member of the citizen’s budget advisory committee will be invited to be part of the process as we establish the 2015 budget,” Gryglewicz said. “The hope is they will provide resident input to us. Perhaps that will also bring more comments from residents about the budget.” Englewood’s budget is divided according to funds. The general fund used for day-to-day operations is the largest single category. The other budget entries are for the special revenue fund, the debt service fund, the capitol project fund, the enterprise funds and the internal service funds. Gryglewicz noted Englewood has
Battles continues on Page 7
Budget continues on Page 7
SNOWBODY’S HERE
No one had yet ventured into Romans Park by 9 a.m. Jan. 5 to disturb the blanket of snow that was firmed up by temperatures in the teens. However, by early afternoon, the blanket was no longer undisturbed by people out for a breath of air or taking their dogs for walks. Photo by Tom Munds
A case of Denver déjà vu? Last year’s battles will surface again this legislative session By Vic Vela
vvela@coloradcommunitymedia.com Going into this year’s legislative session, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle insist that their next 120 days of work will focus on jobs and the economy. But the reality is that Democrats and Republicans will spend a good portion of their time refighting old battles inside the Capitol. Polarizing issues from last year’s session — rural energy mandates; oil and gas industry regulations; election reform; and, yes, gun control — will be debated again. It’s enough to make Yogi Berra proud, because a good portion of this year’s session will seem like deja vu all over again. “When you look at the outcry from the last session, there are some things that need to be looked at again,” said Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs. “And we will have an opportunity to fix them.” Republicans will sponsor bills that seek to undo a Democrat-sponsored gun control package that was placed into law following last year’s session. The package led to new laws that created universal background checks on gun sales; limited the amount of ammunition that a high-capacity magazine can hold; and restricted domestic violence offenders’ access to guns.
Senate President Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, speaks to reporters inside her Capitol office on Jan. 2, as Sens. Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, and Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, listen. Photo by Vic Vela But Democratic leaders aren’t interested in having the same gun debates from last session, ones that led to emotionallycharged testimony and marathon committee hearings and floor votes. “We’re ready to move forward in Colorado and solve the problems that people
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