Denver Mayor Mike Johnston unveiled his proposal for the city and county’s 2026 budget during a news briefing on Monday, saying the $1.66 billion general fund budget would “cut to the bone.”

Johnston called the 5.8% reduction in spending, which aims to fill a $200 million gap, as the “most conservative” in 15 years.

The mayor insisted that, while significant budget cuts have been made across city departments, Denver residents would not see a cut in core services. 

“If there are any amendments to the budget that add cuts to any of the departments,” Johnston cautioned, “those would directly either cut these core services or require more limits, because there is nothing left to cut in these departments…”
~ Denver Mayor Mike Johnston

Johnston said his budget proposal solves the city’s $200 million deficit via the following:

• $77 million in savings from services, supplies and internal transfers
• $118 million in personnel savings
• $5.7 million in revenue additions

The proposed budget now goes to members of the Denver City Council, who will review it and have the opportunity to propose amendments.

“If there are any amendments to the budget that add cuts to any of the departments,” Johnston cautioned, “those would directly either cut these core services because there is nothing left to cut in these departments from what has currently been done without affecting these core services or affecting layoffs, which is why we think it’s really critical for all the public to know about that in the process ahead.”

Along with hiring freezes and layoffs made earlier this year, Johnston said the city has identified close to $77 million in savings from services, supplies and contracts:

• $10 million savings in technology purchases, including reductions in spending on software applications, such as Adobe and Zoom
• $8 million in credit card processing costs
• Negotiating a 2.5% reduction in the city’s tech liability insurance premiums with no decrease in policy terms
• Switching to postcards, rather than letters for property tax notifications
• Reducing marketing campaigns for marijuana abuse prevention, Be a Smart Ash and job recruiting
• Reducing the number of concurrent neighborhood plans undertaken by city planning staff each year from three to two

Other savings will come from department consolidations, use of technology to increase efficiency and the closing of non-congregate housing sites, including the Comfort Inn and the conversion of the Monroe “micro-community” to workforce housing.

Johnston said general fund allocations for the city’s homelessness initiatives will remain flat, with the Office of Housing Stability (HOST) absorbing $33 million in reductions across multiple funds.

“For us, this is good progress in showing the system we had was working, which is when we first opened these hotels,” Johnston said. “The purpose was to meet the overflow needs of getting folks off the street into transitional housing. That means we get people moved out of transitional housing and permanent housing faster. That means we need fewer hotel sites to do that, and importantly, this will include closing all the hotels from which we are paying rent or leasing, like any family, you’d rather own than rent.”

While the city will not see a cut to the number of uniformed personnel, Johnston said public safety agencies have absorbed $27 million through vacancy savings and the elimination of one fire academy class, as the Denver Fire Department is currently at full-strength.

Several people criticized the cuts.

Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López blasted Johnston following the mayor’s budget announcement.

 “Mayor Johnston’s 2026 budget proposal seeks to underfund the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s office by the $4.5 million necessary to run our elections in 2026,” López said in a statement. “This proposal will decimate election operations in Denver by forcing the closure of polling centers and ballot drop boxes in every part of the city, jeopardizing voter turnout in what is expected to be a high-profile midterm election cycle.” 

Johnston defended his proposed spending reductions.

“In the middle of cuts, we tried to work with them on making reductions in the budget,” Johnston said. “They weren’t willing to work together on those, and so we just had to allocate them the amount of dollars that they could have used with a 5% reduction, which was our ask.”

City officials have blamed flattening city revenues, driven — they said — by national economic uncertainty and rising costs for much of Denver’s fiscal woes. They argued that, with the early action to slow hiring in 2024, reduce the size of government in the 2025 budget and freeze hiring this year, the city managed to minimize the impact to employees and public services significantly.

The full budget book and today’s presentation are available online at denvergov.org/budget.