The Durango City Council will begin its most important work of the year at Tuesday’s study session when it will receive the proposed budget for 2016 as drafted by city manager Ron LeBlanc. The session is sure to be instructive on many levels, and for many audiences. Certainly city councilors will receive essential information critical to their decisions that will shape Durango’s priorities for the year to come. Advocacy groups can learn what attention the budget proposes to pay to a particular interest area in 2016, and residents can engage in the budgeting process and all the many factors it encompasses. This is a session worth attending in City Council Chambers this evening.
The image adorning the cover of the city’s 2015 budget is as good an indication as any that determining how money is spent is a political endeavor that reflects the priorities and values of the elected and appointed officials charged with crafting the document – as well as those officials’ constituents. On the 2015 budget, the Durango-La Plata County Airport is splashed across the cover, with a ground-crew member guiding a propeller-driven plane into place.
Indeed, 2015 has been the year of the airport, with the city a leader in discussions about how to fund a significant improvement project, either as a remodel or complete reconstruction of the airport’s terminal. The rationale behind the proposal is that the existing airport facilities have not kept pace with air travelers’ numbers and could, in time, limit economic opportunities awaiting the city.
In the meantime, though, many additional investment needs have emerged as relevant to city residents. The wastewater treatment plant requires replacement. The Gold King Mine spill reiterated that water infrastructure needs improvement. Many of the city’s fine recreational facilities and amenities need upgrades, expansions or additions. Tennis enthusiasts need more courts; hockey players need more ice; gymnasts need more space; cyclists need more and varied terrain.
Each of these desires and challenges – and the many others not articulated here – requires resources, and, to some extent, provides them as well: Many are user-supported – or voter-supported by way of sales tax revenue. Others are not, but are nonetheless critical. The city can be an active participant in addressing issues that cannot pay their own way. Housing is an issue – for those with means, and more urgently for those without.
Each of these topics has a constituency – sometimes a wide-ranging one – and addressing the city’s budget priorities requires input from those with knowledge and concern about a topic. Further, the City Council has directed staff to inform the budget with four critical goals: promoting community sustainability, fostering civic engagement and democracy, demonstrating government performance, and envisioning Durango’s sense of place.
This framework provides a venue for holistic and inclusive budgeting. The City Council study session on Tuesday will provide an excellent venue to understand the city’s thinking for spending and revenue-collection in 2016. This will, in turn, inform the extent to which each priority is addressed. Participate in the conversation early and frequently to help shape the city’s priorities.
