Denver’s 2027 budget season got underway Monday, with City Council members presenting a handful of proposed new budget policies and funding proposals.

With eight budget priorities outlined for 2027, council members used this week’s Budget and Policy Committee meeting to explain, rather than pitch, their proposals, which focus on eight pre-selected priorities: public safety, community empowerment, housing, economic support, the climate, public health, infrastructure, and restoring basic city needs.

While council members did not formally rank their individual spending priorities, many of their priorities overlapped, giving the public insight into where taxpayer dollars may go next year.

Actual pitches will be made during the annual Denver City Council budget workshop set for May 14.

Among the top five that surfaced most frequently were community safety, basic city services, housing and homelessness, infrastructure and community empowerment.

Calls to restore funding for the Denver Police Crime Lab, bolster police resources, and increase staffing for the Sheriff’s Department topped the list.

Expansion of Denver’s STAR program, a civilian crisis response initiative that dispatches mental health clinicians and paramedics, rather than police officers, to low-risk 911 calls involving mental health, poverty, homelessness, or substance use, also ranked among the most mentioned.

Denver City Council members also expressed an emphasis on restoring staffing levels to basic city services such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, Parks and Recreation, and inspections, citing concerns about service delays, closures and reduced capacity.

“We need to look at restoring basic services, improving delivery of essential city services, and restoring trust,” Councilmember Kevin Flynn, who represents Denver’s District 2, said. 

Flynn said he would restore staffing to basic services as revenues allow, starting with the Department of Motor Vehicles, which generates revenue, parking magistrates, and the Department of Finance, so they can mail property tax bills on request.

“We can complain as much as we want, or field complaints from constituents about expired tags and whatnot, but if we don’t give them a place to go get their tags, we have no complaint,” Flynn added. “So, we’ve got to find a way to keep these places open. There are tens of millions of dollars that come in from DMV every year.”

There was also a call for increased funding for housing and to address family homelessness, particularly those with children.

At-Large Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez stated that she wants to ensure the city prioritizes this population, but stressed that this must be done effectively.

“It’s not a band-aid,” Gonzales-Gutierrez said, “It’s how do we help folks to be able to move on to the next step?”

Council members want to see more strategic investment in bridges and roads and to expand or restore Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure positions most important for community engagement and design, such as project manager and community designer positions.

“These positions are critical for disseminating and collecting information from communities to develop projects that reflect the desires of the community, and right now we have roughly one of them for every 160,000 residents, which puts a strain on them and on the process,” District 8 Councilmember Shontel Lewis said.

In the strengthening community participation and engagement category, At-Large Councilmember Sarah Parday has proposed that the city budget support for small businesses and individuals, should Denver see the arrival and activation of federal immigration enforcement agents.

“I have been with others here, spending a lot of time talking to colleagues in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles about what happened to their cities after these abusive federal enforcement efforts,” Parady said. “Minneapolis has lost 300 small businesses that are probably not coming back. They’ve seen doubling or tripling in child hunger, and they’ve seen a tripling of eviction rates after the federal government came and just terrorized their city.”

Parady has also specifically called for budget support for immigrant legal defense and the allocation of start-up costs for the city to have its own social housing authority.

Other interesting spending proposals include funding to study data center moratoriums, water and climate issues, and the restoration of a third city attorney for the Denver City Council.