As Denver prepares to lose at least $180 million amid the coronavirus fallout, city officials say that furlough days for city employees could be used to cut costs until the COVID-19 crisis blows over.

“Budgeted furlough days could be deployed as a way to generate temporary savings, if needed,” Heather Burke, a spokesperson for the city’s emergency Joint Information Center, wrote in an email to Colorado Politics on Tuesday. “This is something we would evaluate based on what we receive from agencies in terms of reductions and based on the length of this emergency.

“Right now, we are not implementing furlough days,” she made clear.

Should the city at any point move forward with the idea, however, it wouldn’t be unprecedented.

The city of Boulder on Tuesday announced that, as of April 20, nearly 740 employees will be furloughed through June 28. The city is expecting a loss of at least $28 million, or nearly 10% of its annual revenue, and is doing what it can to weather the storm, including slashing salaries. 

Boulder is still, however, paying for employees’ health care insurance for the time being. By June 1, the city says it will disclose decisions to extend the furlough or lay off staff.

The economic impact to Denver is projected to be even higher than Boulder’s.

The city is anticipating a 12% drop in tax revenue, which Denverite reported is about twice the impact caused by the Great Recession in 2009.

Since the recession, Burke said, the city has placed “a significant focus” on beefing up its reserve funding, which now totals about $261 million. Those funds can be tapped into as needed, she said.

“We would spend some of those dollars while maintaining our reserves at a level that allows us to be prepared for any unanticipated revenue hits at the end of 2020 or in 20201,” Burke wrote.

The city has implemented a number of steps to help absorb the financial shock from the virus, including putting in place a hiring freeze and requesting that city departments identify 7.5% reductions in their 2020 budgets.

Based on that information, Denver’s finance department will review the proposals and make recommendations to Mayor Michael Hancock on which agency budgets to tighten. The city hopes to identify about $100 million in savings.

“We have emphasized that agencies should avoid cuts to services for residents or the city workforce,” Burke said.