Forced to pick up the multi-million dollar tab for the federal government’s broken immigration system, Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, has made a grave misstep.
Johnston announced cuts last week to some of Denver’s core services that the public will feel most acutely — summer flower bed plantings, Parks and Recreation Center hours, and Department of Motor Vehicle hours. All told, the cuts will save $5 million to help the city cover the expenses of hotels for refugees through March.
We fear that making these cuts will result in a public backlash to the asylum seekers who have been shipped to Denver from the southern border at the very moment that these individuals need public support the most.
Johnston regrettably has no easy options, and we do sympathize with his attempt to be conservative and careful in planning for the worst-case scenario of thousands more refugees from Venezuela and migrants from other parts of South America arriving in Denver this year. That worst-case scenario would be a $180 million budget shortfall this calendar year alone.
The city estimates it spent $42 million to care for about 38,000 newcomers. It received $3.5 million from the state and could get up to $10.6 million from the Department of Homeland Security.
More money is needed, and Johnston has many skills, but conjuring cash out of thin air is not one of them.
But Denver does have the resources – about $34 million in 2024 contingency funds and $262 million in emergency reserves – to float more of the expense of feeding, sheltering, and caring for those who have either already arrived in Denver or are expected to arrive in Denver in the next 10 months.
Johnston should use those resources to forestall any public-facing cuts while cutting all the fat possible behind the scenes.
Using emergency reserve funds today may mean even deeper cuts in 2025 to make up doubly for the lost revenue. It’s a gamble, but it would forestall rising animosity toward the new residents and prevent the gaps in services. We are particularly worried for kids and teens in Denver who rely on recreation centers for positive and healthy spaces after school and during the summer.
Johnston said in an interview on Friday that his administration has already made the easy cuts and that the city has delayed a $15 million renovation project for the Department of Human Services and used $10 million of the city’s contingency. He’s asked for every department to look for about 10% cuts, saying the size of this hole in the budget is akin to the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID economic shutdown. In both cases, the federal government approved substantial aid to cities and counties to assist with their budget shortfalls.
“No one is coming to save us,” Johnston said of Congress’ failure to pass legislation that could send aid to cities and counties burdened by the influx of refugees and migrants. “We have to do this on our own.”
Johnston said part of the plan is to reduce the length of hotel stays for refugees and reduce other services offered. He said it was a shared sacrifice.
The Denver Post reported on Friday that by the end of March, 4,000 people will leave shelters and hotels set up by the city to strike out on their own for better or worse. Many do not have any access to legal work because they don’t qualify for temporary work visas, which are available to some who have claimed asylum depending on the date they filed their paperwork.
We hope Johnston will consider reversing these public-facing cuts by making deeper cuts to other departments and using the contingency and emergency reserves. It won’t be easy to spare these programs, especially if Johnston chooses not to lay off city employees or temporarily reduce employee hours or pay. Denver’s general fund revenue is projected to be $1.7 billion in 2024.
If the refugee crisis continues unabated throughout this year, then we will eat our words in 2025 when the city is forced to cut the budget deeper to both repay the reserves used in 2024 while also caring for a whole new crop of arrivals.
But today, these cuts seem imprudent.
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