Hickenlooper Cuts $160 Million From Libraries, Cops, Other City Services

The Denver Post:

To close a $160 million budget gap, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper plans to slash library hours, privatize four recreation centers, use $40 million in reserves and will freeze salaries and institute furlough days for all city workers.

"There isn't any department in the city that hasn't gone through gut-wrenching decisions," said Claude Pumilia, the mayor's chief financial officer.

Read the whole story: The Denver Post

Comments

[Nosybear]

02:42 AM on 09/17/2009

Gut-wrenching? I generally associate that with another activity. What is gut-wrenching to me is that we can no longer raise the revenue we need to run our cities and states. Ballot initiatives have left us unable to pay for the services only the State can provide, to the joy of our GOPer residents who apparently don't care if our roads are crap, our bridges are rusting away, our educational system is in tatters and it takes a millionaire to send their kids to a State university. I foresee a strangely Heinleinesque libertarianism taking hold in Colorado where neighbors fight because one has fixed their potholes and the other hasn't....

[crookedcountyillinois]

06:59 PM on 09/16/2009

"Gutwrenching" is not a good description. Budget cuts are a good thing. After all, the alternative is to tax us more.

Why can't a politician ever have a good attitude toward budget cuts, and roll them out as a positive?

[brindle]

02:28 AM on 09/16/2009

How about those tax breaks for Republic Airways? Still in the works, or not??