Mayor Lionel Rivera touted the city's economic developmentvictories, warned of tough economic decisions ahead and downplayedproblems with the U.S. Olympic Committee development agreementduring his State of the City speech today.
He said keeping the USOC in Colorado Springs would bring newshops, restaurants and tens of thousands of sporting fans to thecity.
'It's a vision I embrace and support, and it starts by keepingthe USOC Headquarters in Colorado Springs and capitalizing on arenewed partnership,' he said. 'We won't let you down.'
On a more positive note, Rivera said the city used tax money tosuccessfully convince Hewlett Packard to select Colorado Springs fora $260 million data center.
'They could have chosen any number of locations for thisproject,' he said, 'but we partnered with them to make it happenhere by providing tax incentives.'
Developments and victories aside, he said the city still faces atight budget in 2010 and that the city's volunteer sustainablefunding committee will make budget recommendations for next year onJuly 27.
'Our current projections are for a $23 million shortfall for2010,' he said.
The news comes after a particularly difficult year already. Thebudget had gaps of nearly $40 million and eliminated about 200 staffpositions.
He warned that two possible ballot measures proposed by anti-taxcrusader Douglas Bruce would further cripple the city.
One of Bruce's proposed initiatives would halt all enterprisepayments to the city within eight years, including an estimated $27million annual payment in lieu of taxes from Colorado SpringsUtilities.
'You will more than likely see some ballot questions in Novemberthat will not be good for our city,' Rivera said. 'If they pass,they will, when fully implemented, eliminate about $45 to $50million a year of city revenue. We can not let that happen, and wewill do everything we can to defeat the measure.'
