COLORADO SPRINGS — On Tuesday morning, City Council approved the 2023 city budget. That budget is $420 million, an almost 6% increase from this year's budget.
Chief Financial Officer for the city Charae McDaniel says that extra $23.3 million came from additional sales tax revenue.
"We are looking forward to addressing the needs of the citizens, we are a growing community," said McDaniel.
McDaniel says the Mayor's office works to bring a budget forth to City Council, who makes changes as needed.
"One of the main priorities with municipal government is going to be public safety, and we've addressed that in a number of ways," continued McDaniel.
The budget allocates extra dollars compared to this year's budget for several items. It will allow CSPD to hire 15 additional officers and purchase more vehicles for their fleet.
It also allows the Fire Department to hire 32 additional firefighters for two new fire stations built in 2023 and opened in early 2024. One fire station will be on the Northeast side of town, and one will be on the Southeast side of town.
"Both of these are in areas where there is growth and there has been growth. So we're still responding to those areas, but they're coming from stations that are further away, so that adds minutes to those responses," said Chief of CSFD Randy Royal.
The city is also allocating money for Keep It Clean COS, a program designed to clean trash and debris from sidewalks, roadways, and across town. They allocate extra funding for helping homeless outreach in the city, as well as competitive raises for city employees.
McDaniel attributes city expansion as a reason why they are investing in the economy and infrastructure.
"It's very exciting to see all of the progress that the city has made. We have a number of really big projects with all of the city for champions project, we have a lot of housing coming to downtown which was desperately needed, and we're expanding all over the city," says McDaniel.
If you'd like to read the city budget, a link can be found here. The 681-page document is thorough but pages 5-10 have a shorter summary of the contents.
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