Brown fields, no buses: Effects of city budget cuts sinking in

Hermine Wise got a lesson in trickle-down economics last week.

Walking around Prospect Lake at Memorial Park, she noticed a sign on one of the restroom doors. The bathrooms were locked, and the sign was there to let the public know why: the city couldn't afford to maintain the toilets because it didn't have enough money.

"What are people supposed to do?" asked Wise, 78. "Go behind a tree or pee in their pants?"

While budget cuts may be largely abstract when the City Council holds its public, but sparsely attended budget hearings, Colorado Springs residents are seeing the ripple effects of those decisions more and more each day.

"People are feeling the impact," Mayor Lionel Rivera said. "But the bottom line is we have limited resources."

In coming months, a council-appointed committee will unveil a series of "options" to help the city out of its financial rut.

The city relies heavily on sales taxes for its general fund, which pays for day-to-day operations. When the economy goes south, services, programs and jobs have to be slashed.

As a result, the city's Sustainable Funding Committee is considering everything from a new budgeting process to an across-the-board tax increase, which would be a tough sell.

Although Colorado Springs has one of the lowest tax rates in the country, voters here are averse to taxes.

Still, the mayor expects some sort of proposal or proposals on the November ballot.

"I think it's time to go back and ask for more resources," Rivera said. "It's self-evident that we can't provide the level of service that the community desires with what we have."

Some residents, however, suspect the city is cutting back on things like watering parks and bus service to punish voters for not approving tax increases.

Such suspicions are unfounded, said Sue Skiffington-Blumberg, a city spokeswoman.

"We will gladly show any citizen how their money is spent in detail," she said in an e-mail.

"Lane miles have expanded, population has grown, costs for basic operational materials like asphalt, gasoline and cement has gone up substantially over the past few years, but our sales tax, which is over 50 percent of the general fund revenue, has shrunk," she said.

Department heads are grappling with the city's financial woes.

"Candidly, if we have a summer this year like we had last year, I am very, very concerned about the condition of the parks," Paul Butcher, director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, said Friday.

"We are taking every measure possible to keep them at least alive," he said.

Butcher said his office is fielding about one or two complaints a day, from all the dandelions in the medians and parks to the grass turning brown. He said the blue grass in the parks needs about 24 inches of water over a season.

"All our sports complexes, community event centers, medians, we are going to give them 24 inches," he said. "But the other 135 neighborhood parks are only going to get 11 inches, so they're getting half the water that is recommended."

At the Fire Department, response times have started to slip, Fire Chief Steven Cox said.

"We try to meet 90 percent response in eight minutes or less," he said, adding that the city isn't meeting that standard in three of nine zones.

"Our concern is: What do you say to the parent that lives in the city that has (an emergency involving their child) and it takes eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 minutes to get there?" he said.

Deputy Chief Rich Brown said there are some areas of the city where it takes 18 minutes to respond.

"We have great faith that once we get there our folks will provide fantastic service delivery," he said. "But we can't do anything short of catapulting them there to get them there quicker because of the geographic challenges of almost 200 square miles and 20 fire stations."

Cox said next year's budget situation doesn't look any better.

"Next month, we start the whole budgeting process for 2010," he said. "We're not ready yet to say where the cuts will come from or what the impacts will be. But we just know that we're going to have to cut more going into 2010."
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HOW CAN PEOPLE HELP?
The city needs volunteers to help maintain its parks.
Volunteers are asked to "adopt" a park, trail, open space or a particular area of a park, such as a playground, flower bed or sports field.
The city expects volunteers to do routine maintenance a minimum of twice a month, including picking up trash, removing weeds, checking and restocking doggie bag stations and reporting graffiti and damaged playground structures, benches and picnic tables to Parks Maintenance.
The city is asking volunteers for at least a one-year commitment.
To adopt a park, call 385-6519 or e-mail cityparkvol@springsgov.com
Information about the Adopt-A-Park program is available at www.springsgov.com/parks.