PUEBLO WEST — Pueblo West is growing, and next year's budget reflects that growth. The Pueblo West Metropolitan District has approved a 40% increase to 2025's budget. That is $26 million more compared to 2024.
“We approved a budget for Pueblo West Metropolitan District that is approximately about $92 million,” Christian Heyn said.
Christian Heyn is the Pueblo West’s District Manager. He said the district has more money to spend because of three reasons.
The first is increased sales tax revenues.
“Back in 2020, we had a fire sales tax initiative where we did a 1% sales tax that allowed our fire department to collect about $3.8 million in revenue per year to be able to expand,” Heyn said.
He said the fire department has around more firefighters now and they have built fire station No. 2.
“It allowed us to very much invest into one of the major services that the district provides, particularly considering that the general fund didn't have the funding to expand there,” Heyn said.
The second, Pueblo County took over road maintenance in Pueblo West in 2023. Heyn said this saved the district nearly a million dollars.
“So that has allowed us to invest back into the services we provide,” Heyn said.
The third reason, they took a different approach to this year's budgeting, called zero-based budgeting.
“It's where we actually looked at every expense and justified it, whether it was a recurring expense, whether it was a new expense, we justified that through the process, and we actually saw a lot of savings, especially on the operational side and especially on the enterprise side,” Heyn said.
He said this type of budgeting moves away from the traditional incremental increases.
“So every year we look at, let's say, a ten million budget, we recognize that there's costs and inflation, so we might make an assessment of two to 5% increases. Instead of doing that, as we traditionally did, we actually revisited and looked at where different operating expenses might be, and why they are what they are,” Heyn said.
They found ways to decrease their operating expenses and put those funds towards capital improvement projects.
“From year to year, sometimes we would see ourselves being much farther from our budget number to our actual number, and so we were much closer to where we actually are spending that money, which means that that money can then be projected for capital projects that we can see in the next year,” Heyn said.
Nearly $20 million of the budget will be spent on capital improvement projects. These include expanding the wastewater treatment plant, adding additional outdoor trails, and creating a new dog park at Civic Center Park.
“I think that is great. I think they need another one,” Nicole said.
Nicole is a long-time resident of Pueblo. She said she likes to take her dog, Toby, to one of the only dog parks in Pueblo West.
“This one is our favorite but we will try the other one too,” Nicole said.
She said the dog park can often get crowded in the mornings and they need another one.
“Just depending on where people live and stuff, it might be a little bit easier. And then also capacity, depending on the type of the time of day and stuff,” Nicole said.
While Pueblo West’s budget is significantly increasing, down the road The City of Pueblo's 2025 budget is nearly 8 million dollars lower than 2024. Mayor Heather Graham said this was because of a decline in city revenue and higher expenses.
Heyn said the services the city provides compared to the district are very different.
“For instance, we provide fire protection, Parks and Rec water and wastewater services, and COVID enforcement. We don't go through a police force. Our public works might be limited,” Heyn said.
He said the district also relies on mill levies and property taxes.
“I think there has been a long history of Pueblo. West has a very limited form of government and has provided limited services based on it being a Metropolitan District. Whereas the city might have had access to things, and they're running into as things have cost more, they have not necessarily had new revenue sources, whereas we might have had limited funding, but now we're finding new revenue sources,” Heyn said.
For more information visit the Pueblo West Budget Proposal website.
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