City releases 2025-2026 Recommended Budget

Contact Information

• Amy Resseguie, Lead Communications Specialist, 970-416-2738, [email protected]

• Lawrence Pollack, Budget Director, 970-416-2439, [email protected]

The City of Fort Collins published the 2025-2026 City Manager's Recommended Budget Aug. 30 and has scheduled opportunities for community members to learn more and provide feedback to City Council.

The Recommended Budget was developed by City staff and provided to City Council, who will now spend the fall reviewing and modifying the budget prior to adoption in November. Community members can review the proposed budget and share feedback at fcgov.com/budget.

Residents can also share their thoughts about the Recommended Budget directly with City Council by emailing [email protected], or attending Council's budget hearings on Sept. 17 and Oct. 1.

A full list of Council dates and other feedback opportunities are available at ourcity.fcgov.com/priorities; additional discussion questions will be posted throughout the fall.

Budget Themes

The 2025-2026 Recommended Budget takes a balanced approach to both invest strategically in the community's future and provide high-quality and efficient everyday core services.

Due to broader economic conditions, including significant inflationary pressures, the City anticipates minimal discretionary money to be available for 2025-2026. Therefore, the Recommended Budget includes the use of dedicated revenue sources to advance the City's strategic objectives wherever possible, and the use of some reserve funds to continue addressing key infrastructure and technology needs.

Themes in the 2025-2026 Recommended Budget include:

1. 2050 Tax: This 2023 voter-approved 0.5% sales and use tax provides dedicated funding for certain parks and recreation, transit, and climate initiatives that will help the City plan for the future in areas important to the community.
2. Asset Management: The City's asset management backlog continues to be an area of focus, while repair and replacement costs have risen significantly due to inflation and supply chain issues. Dedicated revenue and the use of some reserves will help to make progress on these infrastructure needs.
3. Council Priorities: This budget continues to resource City Council's adopted priorities, particularly around climate, environmental health and housing, both through enhancement offers and ongoing operations.
4. Invest in Talent: The recommended budget proposes salary increases to keep the City at market rates to remain a competitive employer and to support employee attraction and retention.
5. Inflation: Inflation has had a significant effect on the City's operations, particularly in areas like construction costs. A commitment to metrics, efficiencies and innovative solutions will help to maintain service levels wherever possible.
6. Pandemic-Era Funding Ending: The Federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for community resiliency work was a temporary resource that is coming to an end. As such, many of the ARPA-specific and other pandemic-era programs are not recommended to be continued in the 2025-2026 Budget, due to a lack of ongoing funding.

Budgeting for Outcomes

The City's budget is created using the Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) process. Since 2005, BFO has helped the City identify and fund various programs and services to achieve different community outcomes. Each community outcome has specific objectives and performance measures that make up the City's Strategic Plan, and every funded budget item has to impact at least one of those objectives. The Strategic Plan is also updated every two years through extensive community engagement to ensure funded programs and services reflect the desires of the community. City Council unanimously adopted the 2024 Strategic Plan earlier this year.

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