BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
Although adjustments to revenues and expenditures applicable to 2021 that occur after year-end may impact final numbers, preliminary revenues for Greenwood Village for 2021 were $45.7 million compared to preliminary expenditures of $42.5 million. The revenue total includes $2 million that GV received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that it added to its operating budget to make up for revenues lost in 2020 due to the pandemic. The city will receive another $2 million from ARPA in 2022 that it also plans to add to its current year operating budget.
According to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), from which GV has received an award for its budget presentation annually for many years, other allowable uses for that $4 million included assistance to small businesses, households, and hard-hit industries to address the negative economic impacts of COVID-19, premium pay for essential workers, and investments in broadband infrastructure. GFOA also advised that, “Adequate time should be taken to carefully consider all alternatives for the prudent use of ARPA funding prior to committing the resources to ensure the best use of the temporary funding.” The ARPA funding is required to be spent by December 31, 2024. GV adopted an ordinance to add the entire $4 million to its operating budgets for 2021 and 2022 on September 13, 2021. Any year-end surplus in GV, which is currently $3.2 million for 2021, is transferred to the city’s capital improvement fund by policy once the numbers are final, so the surplus has no impact on the following year’s budget process.
Cherry Hills Village was allocated $1.67 million from ARPA based in its population of 6.442, compared to GV’s of 15,611. CHV’s city council put that money into a segregated fund while they decide the best use for it. On February 15, 2022, at their regular meeting, the CHV city council voted to award discretionary bonuses of $4,000.00 each to all city employees who were on board prior to December 31, 2021, since they were essential workers. The cost of that bonus is just over $200,000. Since CHV’s largest source of revenue is property tax, followed by use tax on motor vehicles, it did not experience a significant loss of revenue in 2020 due to the pandemic. Conversely, Greenwood Village receives over half of its revenue from sales tax, which was severely impacted in 2020 by the pandemic, resulting in revenue collections $5 million less than was anticipated in the budget.
fmiklin.villager@gmail.com