Matters Memo

City of Boulder City Council Agenda Item Meeting Date: May 14, 2026 Agenda Title Financial Forecast Study Session

Staff Contact • • •

Krista Morrison, Chief Financial Officer Charlotte Huskey, Budget Officer Scott Carpenter, Principal Budget Analyst

Executive Summary The purpose of this item is for council to receive an update on the city’s financial forecast and 2025 year-end results for sales and use taxes and property taxes, an overview of economic conditions, and an update on key assumptions and considerations for the development of the 2027 budget. The city’s major revenue sources are sales & use tax (45.2% of 2026 forecasted revenues, excluding utility revenues) and property tax (approx. 15.5% of revenues). Beginning in 2023, the city’s sales and use taxes have seen a slowdown in economic growth, with flattening year-over-year growth (under 1.9% growth) between 2023 and 2025. Since 2020, the city’s property tax revenue growth has been impacted by state legislation, including most recently SB24-233 and HB24B-1001, which reduced residential and commercial property assessment rates. In 2025 the city’s sales and use tax revenues came in 0.8% under the 2025 budget, primarily as a result of flattening growth in retail sales tax, which makes up approximately 78% of the total sales and use tax revenue. For property tax, collections came in 0.8% over the 2025 budget.

In addition, since January 2025, uncertainty in federal policies has impacted forecasting assumptions due to heightened economic risk and fluctuations. Staff continue to monitor federal decisions that may have direct and indirect impacts on the city’s budget, such as federal funds supporting existing projects and programs. While forecasting a continuing constrained financial environment leading into 2027 budget development, staff continue to focus on organizational resiliency by monitoring potential economic and legislative changes that may impact the city budget, utilizing data-driven budgeting decision-making through program outcomes and performance measures as aligned to the citywide Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework, and advancing the Long-Term Financial Strategy, a City Council top priority that helps guide long-term financial health of the city. The 2027 budget will focus on the following key assumptions, as described in further detail below. Summary of Key Assumptions for the 2027 Budget 1. Continued flattening of the city’s major revenue sources, sales & use tax and property tax, limits the growth of additional ongoing city programs and services in 2027. 2. Budget considerations, including budget realignments and reductions, will be based on multiple factors, including operational performance data and intended outcomes of city programs and services, criticality of services, advancement of Citywide Strategic Plan and City Council top priorities, and community engagement input, including Fund Our Future community conversations. 3. The city’s unfunded and underfunded needs are great. The 2027 budget and 2027-32 Capital Improvement Program will focus on taking care of the city’s existing assets, including balancing investment between ongoing maintenance and larger infrastructure needs. 4. The Long-Term Financial Strategy will position the city toward long-term fiscal health, including uplifting the guiding principles of fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity, and financial resiliency supported by stability and predictability of service levels, diversification of revenues, and flexibility of funding.

Questions for Council 1. Does council have any questions regarding the 2025 preliminary, unaudited yearend financial results? 2. Does council have any questions regarding the economic outlook and key budget assumptions for the 2027 budget?

Alignment with City Plans and City Council History Sustainability, Equity and Resilience (SER) Framework and Citywide Strategic Plan Alignment SER Framework Goal Area Responsibly Governed. By providing the Financial Forecast on an annual basis in advance of budget development, the city demonstrates the responsible management of its financial assets. The Financial Forecast directly or indirectly supports all seven SER goal areas by identifying trends within our major revenues and updating forecasts that impact 2027 Budget Development.

Citywide Strategic Plan Strategy 12: Implement organizational and financial best practices to continuously improve asset management, customer experience, and project and program performance. The Financial Forecast directly or indirectly supports all citywide strategic plan priorities by identifying trends within our major revenues and updating forecasts that impact 2027 Budget Development, allowing to city to align resources to achieve the plan’s priorities.

Staff Notes This item is part of the city’s annual budget development process, focused on developing revised forecasts of the city’s major revenues to help inform the next year’s budget direction and decision-making.

Alignment with Additional City Plans Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan: The Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) serves as a visionary document that guides the city’s approach to development and preservation of the Boulder area. Specifically, the BVCP serves as a framework for annual and long-term capital infrastructure planning for the city. Each year, Planning & Development Services staff review and submit the six-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) against the BVCP to ensure alignment and support for the city’s longrange development and infrastructure plans. Department Plans: Several department-specific plans are also considered during the annual budget process.

These include but are not limited to: • • • • • •

Boulder-Fire Rescue Department Plan Reimagine Policing Plan Facilities Department Plan Parks & Recreation Department Plan Open Space & Mountain Parks Department Plan Utilities (Water, Wastewater and Stormwater & Flood) Department plans

City Council History Budget Overview and Background: 2023-2026 Approved Budgets With the development of the 2023 budget, the City of Boulder shifted from a traditional, increment-based budgeting approach towards a more data-driven approach through outcomes-based budgeting with citywide alignment of program outcomes and measures to the Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework. The city utilizes multiple factors in developing the annual budget, including programmatic outcomes and measures, historical trends, alignment to the Citywide Strategic Plan, advancing City Council priorities, and community engagement input. Since 2023, the city has utilized program outcomes and performance measures, as well as factors including historical trends, criticality of services, flexibility of funding, and advancement of the Citywide Strategic Plan, City Council priorities, and community engagement input, in development the annual budget. Notably, the city has performed these key investments and budgetary changes since 2023: With the 2023 budget, staff implemented a new budgeting software, OpenGov, and aligned city programs and budgets to the city’s Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework. This effort supported greater transparency of the city’s budget by demonstrating how our investments aligned to community goal areas. The city’s 2023 Approved Budget of $515.4M, with an operating budget of $354.6M and capital budget of $160.8M, made significant ongoing investments in wildfire resilience, public space management, behavioral and mental health programming and services, and homelessness solutions, and one-time investments in programs such as the Safe and Managed Spaces Program and Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) Program. During the development of the 2024 budget, the city added specificity by developing intended outcomes for each program area in the city and added data measurements to be able to measure the impact of our investments. This was also the first year the city worked directly with Community Connectors-in-

Residence (CC-in-Rs) and their communities to incorporate their input and priorities into the budget development process. This engagement generated significant input that was then used during key decision-making of the 2024 budget. Key changes within the total 2024 Approved Budget of $515.4M, with an operating budget of $374.2M and capital budget of $141.2M, comprised the elimination of library operating costs with the voter creation of a Boulder Library District and subsequent programming toward the city’s workforce and permanent investments such as behavioral health programs, day services center operations, wildfire resilience, and housing support. The 2025 budget completed the implementation of Budgeting for Resilience and Equity by focusing on refinement of outcomes and establishment of performance measures, the development of a public-facing outcomes dashboard, continued engagement with CC-in-Rs, a citywide 2025 budget questionnaire, and boards and commissions engagement. The 2025 budget direction focused on realignments of existing dollars and utilizing refined performance measures to guide budget decisions and allocate dollars toward prioritized outcomes. The 2025 Approved Budget of $589.3M, with an operating budget of $399.3M and capital budget of $189.9M, represented a balanced yet responsive approach to supporting community priorities while maintaining investments in core services. Key investments supported affordable housing development, human servicesrelated community programs and rental assistance, urban rangers staffing, and critical fleet replacement and facilities maintenance needs. In 2025, the city anticipated an $8.0-$10.0 million shortfall in the General Fund due to year-end obligations and flattening of sales and use tax revenue against original forecasts. To close the projected gap, the city requested 5% operational savings across all departments, identified one-time reductions to internal fund transfers and special revenue fund subsidies, and implemented a hiring freeze in June to ensure the city maintained at or above its emergency reserve level target. The 2026 budget balanced against a forecasted $7.5M shortfall in the General Fund, with other funds impacted from heightened economic uncertainty and flattening of major revenues due to slowing growth, federal uncertainty, and state legislative impacts. Balancing against this shortfall requires a citywide effort and prioritization of strategic reductions, and realignments, with limited enhancements to ensure fiscal sustainability. The 2026 Approved Budget of $521.0M, with an operating budget of $407.7M and capital budget of $113.3M, represented a thoughtful approach in prioritizing community investments, such as new solutions to our homelessness challenges, ensuring that wildfire resilience and prevention efforts are adequately resourced, evolving our approach to emergency behavioral health response and supporting the arts, while maintaining

investments that uplift our core city services and advance the Citywide Strategic Plan.

As a result of the citywide focus on strategic reductions, realignments, and limited enhancements, the citywide operating budget grew by 2.1%, the smallest since the 2021 Approved Budget. The General Fund budget decreased by 7.8% down to $194.5M, reducing the total below the 2024 General Fund budget of $196.2M.

Analysis City of Boulder 2025 Year-End Results and Economic Outlook The following section provides an overview of the 2025 unaudited year-end results as well as the economic outlook of the city’s two primary revenue sources, sales & use tax and property tax. Since 2020, the city has partnered with the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), Leeds School of Business to forecast revenues based upon an econometric model. These forecasted revenues are utilized to guide budget projections, annual budget development and monitoring.

Major Revenue Sources Sales & Use Tax In the 2026 Budget, sales and use taxes comprise approximately 35% of the city’s revenues and over 45% of revenues when excluding utility revenues. In 2025, the city’s sales and use tax revenues continued the trend of flattening growth that has been experienced since 2023, increasing by 2.8% from 2024, after experiencing a 1.0% decline from 2023 to 2024. After experiencing an average growth rate of 4.1% between 2016 to 2023, the city’s sales and use tax revenue increased under 1.9%, in total, from 2023 to 2025.

Sales & Use Tax Sources

2023 Actuals

2024 Actuals

2025 Actuals

2026 Approved Budget

2026 Forecast

% Change 2026 FC to 2025 Actuals

Retail Sales

$137.73

$139.24

$140.90

$147.35

$139.96

-0.7%

$1.39

$1.18

$1.00

$1.00

$1.00

0.0%

$10.29

$9.84

$9.82

$12.67

$14.63

49.0%

Construction Use

$16.54

$14.92

$18.12

$10.66

$13.78

-24.0%

Motor Vehicle Use

$6.45

$5.97

$6.14

$6.50

$7.89

28.5%

Sales Tax Audits

$1.62

$2.12

$1.58

$1.46

$1.49

-7.7%

Use Tax Audits

$1.50

$0.64

$1.20

Not budgeted

Not budgeted

N/A

$175.52

$173.90

$178.75

$179.64

$178.71

-0.0%

-1.0%

2.8%

0.5%

-0.0%

Rec MJ Additional 3.5% Consumer/Business Use

Total Year over Year % Change

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, total sales and use tax revenues came within 1.5% of the revised forecast, or within $2.5M of anticipated total revenues. As shown in the table below, in 2025, sales and use taxes came in at 101.1% of revised projections, with retail sales tax slightly below revised projected and business use tax revenues at 71.1% of revised projections, this was offset by higher-than-anticipated construction use tax and audit revenues. Construction use tax and tax audit revenues are more volatile than retail sales and business use taxes and therefore are generally considered one-time revenues.

The Recreational Marijuana Sales Tax, which is an additional 3.5% sales and use tax on recreational marijuana funding general purposes, continues to experience an annual decrease in revenues since the pandemic period, with a 51.5% decline since 2020. Staff anticipate this downward trend to continue into 2026.

Sales & Use Tax 2025 Year-End Unaudited Revenues (in millions) 2025 Approved Budget

2025 Revised Projections

2025 Year-End Actuals

Actuals as % of Approved

Actuals as % of Revised

$144.86

$141.57

$140.90

97.3%

99.5%

Recreational Marijuana

$1.15

$1.00

$1.00

87.0%

100.0%

Consumer/Business Use

$11.93

$13.80

$9.82

82.3%

71.1%

Construction Use

$14.31

$12.70

$18.12

126.6%

142.7%

Motor Vehicle Use

$6.65

$6.47

$6.14

92.3%

94.9%

Sales Tax Audits

$1.28

$1.28

$1.58

123.4%

123.2%

Not budgeted

Not budgeted

$1.20

N/A

N/A

$180.17

$176.84

$178.75

99.2%

101.1%

Category

Retail Sales

Use Tax Audits Total

Elevated federal uncertainty has influenced forecasting assumptions for the city’s sales and use tax revenues due to heightened economic risk. Primary drivers of economic uncertainty that may impact sales & use taxes include overseas conflict and its impact on oil prices, tariff policies and subsequent supply chain risk, potential rising inflation, and likely impacts to consumer confidence and spending.

Based on the most recent economic data from Moody’s Analytics economic scenario forecasts and modeling provided by CU Boulder, staff has adopted a more conservative 2026 revenue forecast for sales and use taxes, revising revenue projects down to mitigate potential risk. As shown in the graph below, the revised forecast assumes 0.0% year-over-year growth between 2025 actuals and 2026 projections, with 2.5% average annual growth between 2025-2032. The forecast assumes that near-term revenue declines in 2026 and 2027, with moderate economic recovery between 20282032. This downward revision from the 2026 Approved Budget can be seen in the chart below.

2025-2032 PROJECTIONS AGAINST 2025 ORIGINAL FORECAST

215.0M 211.2 M 209.3 M

210.0M 206.6 M 205.2M

205.0M 201.6 M 201.2M

200.0M 196.3M 196.0 M 194.9M 191.6M 190.8 M 190.7M

190.0M 185.0M 182.7M

175.0M

202.9M

198.8M

195.0M

180.0M

206.9 M

179.0M 177.8 M 175.8M

178.6M 177.7 M

2025

2026

2025 Original Forecast

187.1M 184.9M 183.5 M

2026 Budget (July 2025) 2026-2032 Revised Forecast

170.0M 2027

2028

2029

2030

2031

2032

During the Financial Forecast on May 14, staff and CU Boulder will present and provide further details on economic conditions and forecasted sales & use tax revenues.

Property Tax Property tax is the second largest source of ongoing revenue supporting general purposes, comprising approximately 10% of annual citywide revenues, and 15.5% of revenues when excluding utility revenues in the 2026 Recommended Budget.

Property values are reassessed by the county assessor’s office every two years, on every odd-numbered year. Biannual property value reassessments are based on timeadjusted home sales data from two years prior to the assessment date. The most recent reassessment in 2025 impacts 2026 and 2027 property tax revenue. In September of

2024, the state legislature passed HB24B-1001, which impacted city property tax revenues for 2025 and beyond. In 2026 this legislation reduces assessment rates for both commercial and residential property.

For the city’s 11.648 mill levy, the total property tax revenue for the current 2026 revised projection is $57.3M, a 3.1% decrease from the 2026 Recommended Budget total of $59.2M. The 2026 revised projection is based on the final assessed value certifications provided by the county in December 2025. Staff budgeted based on the preliminary values provided by the county earlier in 2025, prior to any property owner appeals. This decrease is the result of property owners’ appeals as the assessed value from preliminary to final certification dropped from $5.18B to $5.02B.

The city received 2026 Preliminary Assessed Values from Boulder County on May 5, which affect revenue for the 2027 Budget. Typically, in the second year of a reassessment cycle these assessed values are consistent with the prior year’s final certifications, however due to the impact of HB24B-1001, 2026 assessed values are calculated differently from 2025 assessed values. Preliminary assessments and initial estimates of projected growth for 2026 anticipate a 0.9% year-over-year increase in property tax revenues for 2027.

Staff review of assessment values indicates slowing growth in property values, notably residential values, during the 2025 reassessment cycle. The flattening is also attributed to the compounding effect of HB24B-1001, which impacted assessment rates and assessed values for residential, commercial, and agricultural properties. Staff continue to review this data with Boulder County Assessor’s Office to provide updated revisions to the property tax forecast. The table below shows property tax revenue declining by $3.1M or 5% from 2024 to 2025, driven by $2.4M in one-time legislative backfill revenue (SB22-238) received in 2024 and the impact of SB24-233 on 2025 revenue.

Property Taxes – City of Boulder (in millions)

Description

Tax Revenue ($ millions)

2023 Actuals

$48.74

Year over Year % Change (Revenue)

Assessment Values (AV)

Year over Year % Change (AV)

$4,227

2024 Actuals

2025 Approved Budget

2025 Actuals

2026 Approved Budget

2026 Projection

$60.63

$57.12

$57.58

$59.17

$57.33

24.4%

-5.8%

-5.0%

2.8%

-0.4%

$5,095

$5,004

$5,091

$5,184

$5,022

20.5%

-1.8%

-0.1%

1.8%

-1.4%

2027 Budget – Key Assumptions The key budget assumptions, as outlined below, are major factors that will inform the 2027 Budget. While staff carefully consider and review a comprehensive set of assumptions during the annual budget development cycle, the following major assumptions and policy issues will be of significant consideration during this year’s budget development. 1. Ongoing Constrained Financial Environment and Trade-offs Primarily due to the downward revisions of the city’s major revenues discussed above, the city’s financial landscape is still constrained with the projected growth of expenses outpacing revenues. The 2027 Budget will need to continue the citywide focus on strategic reductions, realignments, and limited enhancements during the development of the 2026 Approved Budget. In the current constrained environment, the city will need to weigh budget trade-offs across all city funds, with particular focus on those impacted by slowing growth of sales and use tax, and property tax.

Adopted Budget 2019-2026 (In Millions) $700.00 $589.52

$600.00 $515.40 $462.50

$500.00 $400.00 $300.00 $200.00

$520.98

$515.40

$353.70

$369.70

$354.60

$341.70

$283.20

$288.90

$158.20

$161.50

$146.90

2019 Adopted

2020 Adopted

2021 Adopted

$272.30

$374.20

$399.30

$407.68

$300.10

$164.70

$188.40

$196.17

$210.86

2023 Adopted

2024 Adopted

2025 Adopted

$194.48

$100.00 $0.00

Citywide Budget

2022 Adopted

Citywide Operating

2026 Adopted

General Fund Budget

2. Utilizing performance data, historical trends, criticality of city services, Citywide Strategic Plan, City Council priorities, and community engagement to support trade-offs of investments in city programs and services With limited ongoing revenues to support additional ongoing programs above current service levels, the 2027 budget direction will continue to focus on budget realignments of existing dollars and funding flexibility across all city funds to invest in prioritized program outcomes and key community priorities. With the 2027 budget, the city’s outcomes-based budgeting approach and pillars of decision-making within Budgeting for Resilience & Equity will continue to support prioritization of realignments, which includes reviewing the performance of intended outcomes by program area and shifting existing dollars toward their highest and best use in support of community and citywide goals. The city will continue to refine, iterate, and improve upon program outcomes and performance measure data as aligned to department program areas, the Citywide Strategic Plan, and greater Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework. With Budgeting for Resilience & Equity now serving as a foundational tool and incorporated

into annual budgeting practices, the city aims to continue to measure the impact of investments and utilize this framework to prioritize funding toward those measurable impacts.

3. Capital Improvement Program: Emphasis on Taking Care of What We Have As discussed during the April 9 City Council study session, on the financial landscape of city facilities, the city has a building portfolio of over 75 buildings with half of them being built before 1970. Currently, the city’s building portfolio is declining faster than our ability to care for it, with large unfunded needs related to deferred maintenance and the cost escalation of building equipment and materials that are outpacing revenue growth and current funding sources. Of the 75 buildings, the 15 priority buildings have unfunded needs of approximately $400M. The 2027 Budget will take steps towards addressing this issue by prioritizing investments in city maintenance and infrastructure. However, since the unfunded need exceeds potential funding from 2026 ballot measures options, the city needs to balance investments in ongoing maintenance of existing infrastructure and larger renovations and replacements. Furthermore, the facilities capital needs are only one area of our broader capital infrastructure portfolio, which is seeing cost escalation and aging infrastructure demands similar to our facilities. 4. Long-Term Financial Strategy The Long-Term Financial Strategy builds upon prior policy guidance related to sustainable funding for the City of Boulder. The city commissioned a Blue-Ribbon Commission (BRC) on Revenue Stabilization in 2008 that developed two comprehensive reports related to sustainable revenue and budgeting approaches. The BRC reports in 2008 and 2010 called for a comprehensive financial plan, cautioned the city’s overreliance of sales and use tax and dedication of funding sources, and encouraged the development of an outcomes-based system for budgeting. Named a top City Council priority in 2024, city staff have since advanced the Long-Term Financial Strategy forward through four primary workstreams, as outlined below. Through this initiative, the city aims to support revenue stability and sufficiency by rebalancing revenue structures, researching and implementing alternative funding mechanisms, and outlining key ballot strategies to support revenue diversity and flexibility into the future. Below is the work achieved to date and planned for 2027 budget development within the Long-Term Financial Strategy’s key components:

▪

Establish a Long-Term Financial Plan that outlines guiding principles, performs a current state assessment, recommends updates to financial policies and commitments to best practices, and future strategic steps. Staff has begun this work and aim to finalize the Long-Term Financial Plan in 2026, which will serve as a strategic planning and financial policy document to guide the city's financial strategy in the 2027 Budget and going forward.

▪

Compilation of a Comprehensive Fee Inventory to identify true cost of service levels and establish citywide policies and practices related to fees and fee updates. Staff completed the first phase of this work in Q1 2025, which compiled a citywide inventory of fees, fee methodologies, and cost of service levels – the first comprehensive inventory the city has developed. A best budgeting and financial practice, this Comprehensive Fee Inventory is now included in the 2026 Budget and will be updated and published annually as part of the budget. Staff will continue to outline future steps to review and implement updates to existing fees, review and research alternative revenues, and incorporate implementation of updated or new revenues into the city's portfolio.

▪

Explore and implement Alternative Funding Mechanisms to support core city services and community needs. This action step has included analyzing funding mechanisms, researching funding opportunities, and identifying strategic revenue sources to consider. Staff began this work in the fall of 2024, with a goal of completion during 2026. As a result of citywide coordination and staff research, the 2026 Budget proposed several fee updates and implementation of new fees, including the Transportation Maintenance Fee, the single-family housing impact fee, speed-on-green photo enforcement revenue, and parking fees. This work will continue in 2027 with updates to fees and further consideration of revenue opportunities.

▪

Inventory Core Service Levels to understand service level needs across the organization. This important work includes community conversations through Fund Our Future community engagement sessions, which will gather valuable input on community priorities and trade-offs of service levels. Fund Our Future engagement and community conversations took place in April 2026 ahead of decisions on 2026 tax ballot measures and 2027 budget development. During 2027 Budget Development the list of city services and service levels will be further refined and categorized hierarchically to support decision-making.

▪

Develop and implement a Ballot Measure Strategy for 2025 and 2026. Staff, informed by the partnership and guidance of the Financial Strategy Council Committee, developed a two-year Ballot Measure Strategy framework that focuses on taking care of the city's unfunded needs in 2025, and in 2026,

focusing on both unfunded needs and scaling of levels of service for city programs and services. The Multi-Year Ballot Measure Strategy resulted in the successful passage of the permanent extension of the 0.3% Community, Culture, Resilience, and Safety Tax (72% approval) and associated debt authority (65%). This work continues in 2026 with the development of 2026 ballot measure options that could potentially have an impact on the 2027 Budget. These goals and action steps outlined in the Long-Term Financial Strategy will guide future decision making, both within the 2027 budget and as we approach major policy issues that implicate the city’s long-term financial health.

Anticipated Fiscal and Workplan Impacts The Financial Forecast and development of the annual budget represent key deliverables for the annual workplan of the city’s Budget Office. Which focuses on budgetary and fiscal planning in partnership with departments citywide. Ensuring alignment of the city’s resources to the Sustainability, Equity, and Resilience Framework, and the city-wide strategic plan.

Equity Analysis The city develops the Financial Forecast and annual budget direction using the SER Framework, which leads with decision-making as aligned to the goal areas and objectives underneath the sustainability, equity, and resilience umbrella. While these three pillars represent the overarching goals for the city, equity considerations are embedded throughout the annual budget development process, including the city’s efforts to shift from a traditional increment-based budgeting approach to outcome-based budgeting, focusing more on the outcomes of our investments and how those align to the greater SER Framework and incorporating community budget engagement by uplifting feedback from historically marginalized communities into decision-making – which, as mentioned in additional detail in the Community Engagement section, informs our annual budget cycle.

Climate, Resilience, and Sustainability Considerations The city develops the annual budget direction through the lens of the overarching SER Framework, which serves as the foundation to budget decision-making and resource allocation. The 2027 Recommended Budget will continue to align and uplift investments supporting resilience and sustainability, including in areas such as wildfire resilience,

flood mitigation, and city facility renovations and infrastructure projects that will result in reduced building energy consumption and built with sustainably sourced materials.

Community Engagement Development of the 2027 Recommended Budget will incorporate the results of the Fund Our Future community engagement sessions and online trade-off exercise, summarized below, and with more in-depth information shared during the June 25, Potential Ballot Measures study session with the results of the polling survey. Additionally, the 2027 Recommended Budget will incorporate existing community feedback and input received during the 2024 and 2025 budget development cycles. During that time, staff performed community budget engagement input sessions with Community Connectors-inResidence (CC-in-R), as well as a citywide questionnaire, who provided priorities of SER Framework objectives and goal areas. CC-in-R provided consistent feedback over two years of engagement, including continuing to support the following top three priority areas for investment: 1. Support the City of Boulder advancing racial equity and implementing equity strategies and tools (Responsibly Governed). 2. Provide a variety of housing types with a full range of affordability (Livable). 3. Support financial security and economic opportunity regardless of race, gender, ability, or socioeconomic status (Economically Vital). The 2025 Citywide Budget Questionnaire received over 1,000 responses from Boulder community members. While not randomized or statistically representative of the overall community, this questionnaire showed that respondents prioritized these top three goals: 1. Safe: Crime reduction, transportation maintenance and safety, downtown vitality, public space safety, unhoused populations and encampments, substance use, accessibility and affordability for elderly populations, affordability, small business support 2. Healthy & Socially Thriving: Unhoused populations and encampments, arts funding, downtown vitality, public transportation, affordability 3. Livable: Housing, unhoused populations and encampments, affordability, affordable housing The city’s Executive Budget Team, the internal decision-making body comprising the City Manager’s Office and department directors, utilized this community input to help

inform budget decisions for the 2026 fiscal year and will do so again for the 2027 fiscal year along with the input received from Fund Our Future. Fund Our Future •

•

63 participants across the eight online and in-person engagement sessions o Including in-person sessions for Older Adults, the Youth Opportunities Advisory Board, and Community Connectors-in-Residence 536 responses to the online tradeoff exercise

Next Steps for City Council Directly following the staff presentation on the 2027 Financial Forecast on May 14, city staff will present analysis on 2026 Ballot Measures. Future City Council discussions on the 2027 Budget include: • • •

August 28, 2026 – Release of the City Manager’s 2027 Recommended Budget September 10, 2026 – City Council Study Session on the 2027 Recommended Budget October 1 and 15, 2026 – 1st and 2nd Budget Readings and City Council Adoption

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