Colorado Springs will try to spare public safety and municipal parks from the impact of the city’s roughly $11 million budget shortfall, Mayor Yemi Mobolade said Wednesday during his monthly press briefing.

The shortfall, largely driven by lower sales tax revenue, will force the city to not fill vacant positions and limit spending on discretionary equipment. City officials hope the across-the-board belt tightening will lead to a better budget outlook by the end of 2026.

“We are still seeing signs of economic growth and prosperity. So we are remaining hopeful that we are not going to be in this season forever,” Mobolade said.

Mobolade could not guarantee that the Colorado Springs fire and police departments would be untouched but repeatedly said their services and sworn officers were a top priority. The mayor said he wanted to see “minimal impact” on the public safety departments.

Mobolade also said that unlike during the city’s budget cuts after the 2008 recession, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department would not bear the brunt of the impact.

In addition to limiting discretionary spending, Mobolade said the city might scale back on pothole repairs, road repaving and campaigns like Keep It Clean COS.

“I don’t believe the best use of our taxpayer money is just keeping our city clean. It’s a very important priority of mine and the entire city, but I want to shift it to a shared responsibility where our residents are also participating,” Mobolade said.

Mobolade said the budgetary challenges came from national economic issues including the low levels of consumer confidence and the recent impacts of tariffs. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index showed that confidence in the economy remained far below what it had been before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A table presented by the Mayor’s Office showed that Boulder faces a similar budget shortfall as Colorado Springs and that Denver could be short around $50 million.

Colorado Springs Finance Director Charae McDaniel said last week that around 50 department leaders and city officials would meet to discuss which of their unfunded projects they would prioritize next year.

“There are some unavoidable costs that we have going into 2026. We will talk about what’s unfunded and deciding how to manage it,” McDaniel said.

Colorado Springs saw budget shortfalls in each of the previous two years, but the roughly $11 million projection this year was much larger. Mobolade pointed out that the city’s sales tax revenue has been around $248 million for several years after a period of regular growth.