Plan would spare parks

El Paso County would dodge some painful cuts but still slash other services under proposals a citizens committee made Thursday.

The county is facing a financial crisis that officials said could threaten government services, from law enforcement to help for the poor. The crisis stems from a projected $9.9 million shortfall by the end of the year caused by declining revenues and rising costs.

Voters might get a chance to decide on a longer-term fix to the county's budget problems in November. Another group, Citizens for Effective Government, is preparing a ballot measure that would increase the sales tax rate by 1 percentage point. That would bring in roughly $70 million in the first year, which the county would use to restore some of the cuts and chip away at a backlog of hundreds of millions of dollars in other needs.

The plan presented by the Citizen Budget Oversight Committee calls for using the county's property, such as land and buildings, to bridge part of the budget gap. The plan does not call for selling parkland, one option the county commissioners had explored that could have raised an estimated $14.6 million.

The sale of parkland, mass layoffs and other options aren't yet out of the question, though. The county commissioners expect to make a final decision on the budget cuts Monday.

One recommendation involves taking $3 million from an emergency reserve fund the county is required to have under the state constitution. The county would use that money to pay its bills, and it would keep the reserve fund at the same level by pledging property in place of cash.

The properties that would be used weren't identified, but the county has a large portfolio of assets including 124 buildings worth tens of millions of dollars.

Another recommendation called for cutting $1.8 million from the Department of Human Services, which oversees welfare programs such as food stamps and child protection. That money would be replaced by essentially mortgaging at least one of the department's buildings. The biggest building, at 105 N. Spruce St., is worth an estimated $3.8 million, according to Assessor's Office records.

El Paso County would put the building up as collateral against a so-called certificate of participation. The Colorado Constitution says the government can't incur debt without permission from voters, but the certificate of participation would sidestep that rule because the debt obligation would belong to a separate company the county controls.

The result for the Department of Human Services would be no loss of funding this year.

Other departments and programs would be dramatically scaled back or eliminated under the plan. It calls for removing $73,000 of county support for the Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, which has a local office to manage education programs about agriculture, nutrition and the 4-H Club. The office would close without that money, although some activities could continue with volunteers.

A program that helps judges decide whether to let accused criminals out of jail without bail would also be eliminated if $267,000 were cut from the Department of Justice Services. Judges said this week that if that cut went through they would be less likely to grant personal recognizance bonds, which would result in more people being kept in jail before trials.

The Facilities Management and Fleet Management departments would each be cut $500,000. That raised concerns from some county officials. Deputy County Administrator Monnie Gore said the government has delayed maintenance on vehicles, buildings, and heating and cooling systems for years.

"Eventually the infrastructure is going to fail, it's going to collapse. Is it going to be a catastrophic failure? I can't say that, but it's going to fail sooner or later," Gore said.

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