The Town's Finance team has indicated that we will be exhausting our Capital Improvement Fund by 2028. When this occurs, we will not even have enough money to fund such things as our street maintenance needs. In response, Staff has recommended the priority of sustaining this CIF fund, which to do so includes a 10% cut across all departments. As well, they are recommending a new fee be added to our utility bills - a dedicated "Transportation Maintenance Fee" - in order to ensure we have adequate funding for street maintenance in the future. All of this is currently being done to answer one question: How do we pay for our capital needs?

Personally, I believe this is the single most important issue facing the Town. It has the potential to affect our everyday life as residents, impacting us in ways both big and small. A concerted effort must be made to stabilize our budget in order to avoid a cascading affect that detrimentally affects all Town services.

Unfortunately, there is no other way to say this: in the next couple of years, the Town will not have enough money to properly maintain our roads. We will not have enough money for all of the Town's capital project needs.

I am not saying this to scare anyone or to make a "sensationalist statement" as some have called it in the past. It is simply the reality of our Town's finances, one that I had noted in 2024. It is, in my eyes, the single most important issue that is affecting the Town, one that has the ability to affect us all in so many different ways,

In light of this upcoming funding gap, the Town's Finance team has said what our priority needs to be moving forward: "Given that transfer funds to the CIF (Capital Improvement Fund) are limited and dependent on available unassigned operating funds from the General Fund, we must prioritize sustaining the CIF fund."

The Capital Improvement Fund (CIF) is the Town's budgetary account used for all capital projects that have been historically paid from the General Fund. Including many of the one-off Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) list of projects, this fund is also used to pay for our maintenance needs - such as annual street maintenance.

The CIF was initially funded for the 2024 Budget using the General Fund "spendable fund balance" in excess of our reserve requirements, 25% of operating expenditures. To help fund this account and immediately pay for specific unfunded projects in 2024, the Council majority at the time also repealed our General Fund Stabilization Reserve Account, an additional $7.5 million reserve (which I opposed and voted no on).

For the 2025 Budget year and after, any excess revenues from the prior year above the 25% requirement are then transferred to the CIF for use in the next or future years. As this account has been drawn down to pay for various Capital needs, we are almost at the point where the initial funding of this account will be exhausted. When this occurs, we will be acting in a "pay as you go" situation moving forward - where the only funds available will be solely coming from the previous year's excess revenues.

Recent stagnation and decreases in Town revenue sources, coupled with our expenses historically exceeding revenues, have all but made it a certainty that we will not be able to meet our funding needs moving forward.

Development activity within the Town has historically accounted for approximately 10-20% of General Fund revenues annually. A slowdown of development activity occurred mid-2025 due to various economic factors, which caused an initial decrease of development revenue. This trend continued in 2026 as permits for new residential construction have been lower than initially estimated for budgeting assumption purposes.

Ultimately, it has resulted in use tax and building permits falling by over 40% - resulting in a 60% decrease in development revenues. At the same time, year-over-year sales tax growth has slowed to just 2%.

Our Finance team has even noted that moving forward, "year-to-date revenue trends indicate that the Town's revenues will continue to stagnate or even decline".

Adding to this issue further, in May of this year, Staff also identified that our raw water available for development was significantly impacted by delays in the NISP and Chimney Hollow projects. Due to the uncertainty as to when these projects might come online, and because the Town was nearing exhaustion of our already existing water shares, Staff recommended a water allocation policy.

This policy affects projects town-wide - including development activity - where projects that wish to access the Town's already existing raw water shares will need to be prioritized among other competing projects. Unless a developer brings their own raw water for a development, all projects - residential and commercial alike - will be affected by this.

With this policy enacted, it effectively places a growth cap on the Town for the next 5-7 years, until these new water projects come online. The percentage that was applied to residential development - 65% of 125 Acre Feet - equates to approximately 180 single family dwelling units, which is well below our historical averages.

Not including the impacts that this will also have on commercial or economic development projects, these water allocations will continue to stagnate or reduce residential growth in the Town for at least the next 6 years or so.

In order for the Town to be able to fund our future maintenance and capital project needs, Staff has begun to identify alternative ways to "right-size" the budget. This has included slowing spending to "provide a more stable forecast moving forward." The first step towards this was requiring a 10% cut to expenditures for all Town departments.

Another idea that has been proposed is a dedicated Transportation Maintenance Fee, "a small fee charged per resident on monthly utility bills to support ongoing street paving and associated transportation operations."  With this proposed fee already built into the 2027 budget assumptions, Staff has indicated that it will be required to meet our capital and maintenance needs - and to help stabilize the CIF for the coming years.

As mentioned earlier, I had raised this concern in 2024, noting that "with this limited amount of Capital Funding available, if there are any decreases in our revenues, or any major unexpected funding needs in the near future — it will have the potential to create a domino effect towards our ability to fund projects, including things as simple as maintaining our roads."

Unfortunately, this is the exact situation that has played out. It is without question our current reality, the most important issue the Town is facing, and has the potential to cause the most impact to our daily lives.

The only real question now is simple, but very difficult to answer: "How do we pay for our capital needs moving forward?"

At this very moment in time, because of how soon this impending reality is, we need to simultaneously decrease expenses and increase revenues (or at a very minimum stabilize revenues).

First, and foremost - this issue needs to be made public. Residents deserve to know the situation we are in. We all deserve to understand this reality and be told it without any spin.

Previous administrations, like the Council I served with 2022-2025, only wanted to provide what I call "rainbows and butterflies". Anything that did not point to a positive, bright future for the Town was simply swept under the rug. And when I tried to say something, individuals in the community - including some of very same that I served with on Council - said I was making things up and that there was no cause for alarm.

That is not transparency. That is not being open, truthful, honest to a fault about the reality we are facing. Our residents require and deserve the full picture, no matter how hard it might be to handle.

Next, I want to applaud our Finance team for coming before Council and taking this issue very seriously. And not only that, but already beginning to take the corrective steps needed to address the problem. They are already moving forward in the exact ways that I would hope them to.

Such as reducing departmental budgets in order to minimize expenses. Scrutinizing new or currently unfilled positions, the itemized capital projects, and other expenditure requests. Even going so far as to review every expense line item by line item to identify unnecessary or non-essential expenditures, like they have been.

Staff is already taking the proactive steps that are immediately available - while avoiding the personnel-related furloughs or layoffs - as those are a last resort which should be avoided at all costs. Essentially, they are beginning to ensure that we are "living within our means".

Another outside the box idea might include the creation of a Citizen's Advisory Budget Committee, just like Centennial, Englewood, Aurora, Denver, and other municipalities have. This resident-led body would be tasked with the sole purpose and responsibility of reviewing the Town's budget, providing recommendations to Council as necessary. Sometimes simply receiving unique perspectives from others can lead to solutions of some of the tallest problems.

Finally, we need to identify solutions which will increase revenues, and at a very minimum stabilize current revenue sources. Personally, while I understand the rationale behind the "Transportation Maintenance Fee" that Staff is proposing, I do not believe tacking a fee onto the utility bills is the correct action. Instead, I would prefer the residents to decide on a future ballot initiative whether a dedicated tax should be instituted for this purpose. Or possibly even have a portion of our already collected sales or property taxes be dedicated solely for this purpose. I do, however, applaud Staff for trying to identify creative ways to increase Town revenues. Quite frankly, all options have to be on the table for discussion at this moment.

We will need to identify both immediate and long-term ways to increase revenues. I believe we also need to address the Erie-specific issues that are affecting the development community to spur both residential and commercial development again. Both of these not only provide one-time development revenues, but also lead to recurring sales tax revenues. Addressing what we can to make it easier to do business within the Town must remain a priority.

If the Town is unable to take the immediate and near-term actions necessary to stabilize the budget, it will cause a cascading affect across all Town services. And at that point, it will be too late.

To fix this issue, it will take individuals who understand the Town's finances, who have seen this issue coming in advance, who have been unafraid to say so, and who understand what needs to be done to fix it.

Our Town's future success depends on leaders who are willing to stand up for the Erie residents and ask the tough questions others won't, leaders who remain Forward Thinking for Erie’s Future!

*Just a side note to all of the items that I discuss: I am a solutions driven problem solver by nature. I wonder how things work, why they work the way they do, and how to make them better. This means seeking different, outside-the-box methods to figure out solutions to various issues. Accordingly, I am always open to learning new ideas, different ways of doing things, as well as constantly learning from others' experiences to make better decisions. When I see an issue, I view it in a holistic fashion, and then dive into specific areas to remove deficiencies and create efficiencies. If you, who are reading this, have some thoughts or ideas about any of the subjects I discuss, I would be more than happy to speak with you to hear your opinions. Please reach out to me here through my website. Listening, hearing, and understanding different perspectives is the only way that we can all grow and create positive change - by learning from others, and delivering ideas that push the needle to become Forward Thinking.