The Budget

The key thing I've learned doing nonprofit work for 25 years is that it all comes down to money.

We can find solutions to many of our problems—housing, transportation, public safety—but if we don't have the money, we can't do the work. We need a comprehensive approach to the budget, including increased revenue, efficiency, and more strategic resource allocation.

Relying on tourism to supply enough sales tax revenue to run a city is not realistic in the long run. As a statutory city, we're limited in our revenue-generating tools. Taxes on short-term rentals and other lodgings are one solution, and we'll probably have to do it to stop the bleeding. But we're going to need to think creatively about generating revenue.

If our toolkit is limited, what partners can we engage with to expand those tools? This is where our community partners come in. Grant funding is a tool that is vital for the survival of nonprofit organizations, and they can be for the city as well. But while city staff have been successful in securing some grant funding for some departments, they are already stretched thin. Expecting them to also engage in robust grant seeking is not realistic. However, the city could collaborate with nonprofit partners to collaboratively apply for funds. For example, in my job in domestic violence work, there have been several grants available to improve community response for survivors, which would provide revenue for the organization and for participating law enforcement agencies. Opportunities like these can augment revenue generation and the grant funding city staff are already securing to benefit both the city and our partners and ultimately improve the safety and health of our community.

In addition to bringing in more revenue, we need to think strategically about how we are allocating our existing resources. Short-sighted "cost savings" might feel good in the moment, and they might even solve the problem temporarily. But if we slash and burn without considering the big picture, we'll be in slash-and-burn mode perpetually. We already have that issue at the federal level; let's not go that direction locally as well. I'll give you an example. Right now, city staff are presenting their budgets to City Council to approve. In the Salida Police Department presentation, Chief Johnson stated that Chaffee County is asking for $125,000 to fund the Co-Responder program. Chief Johnson obviously values the program from a human services perspective, and said so in his presentation. However, his budget proposal only includes $25,000 for the program. Evidence-based programs like co-responder programs have been shown to improve outcomes for people experiencing mental health emergencies, reduce police turnover, and... you guessed it... save local governments money. So while it might be tempting to "save" $100,000, in the long run we would be missing out on an estimated $600,000 in cost savings to the city by participating in the program. For more information about the co-responder program and the estimated cost savings, check out this post.

We have to be willing to fight inertia. These problems are hard, and budgets are challenging and overwhelming. But if we can think outside the box and rely on our community partners for collaboration, it can be done!