Faced with a budget shortfall, Arapahoe County’s proposed budget for next year includes cuts to programs and prioritizes “essential” services, officials said.

The county’s recommended budget for 2025 sits at a little over $571 million.

All told, county offices and departments requested over $52 million in operational budget packages and $26.1 million in capital improvements.

The executive budget committee, which is in charge of reviewing spending requests and making recommendations to county commissioners, proposed that the county fund $10.2 million in capital improvement projects, including $7.4 million in facility improvements, $1.35 million in transportation infrastructure projects and $1.5 million in technology enhancements.

But the committee also recommended a $2.1 million cut to non-mandated general fund spending, such as the Aid to Agencies program, which supports local nonprofits, and another $15.9 million in capital improvement projects deferred to future years.

The panel also recommended denying $1.4 million in requests for 13 new full-time positions, $2.1 million in requests for general fund money, and $7.8 million in requests for pavement maintenance.

“Despite our revenue limitations, the 2025 Recommended Budget is balanced and will allow us to continue offering state and federally mandated programs that promote quality of life for our residents,” Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully said. “But in very real terms, this means that next year’s budget will only fund the things we have to do — it will not include the things that we should do nor the things we could do.”

In 2024, the county saw growth in property tax revenue, but officials said it has run into limits under the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The TABOR amendment, which voters passed in 1992, limits the revenue that a government can retain and spend.

In August, the county’s commissioners placed a measure on the November ballot asking voters to lift the TABOR limits, a process called ‘de-Brucing’ — that is, permit a county, municipality or school district to eliminate the TABOR spending limit, and then to retain and spend all of the revenue it has collected.

Only a few of Colorado’s 64 counties have not “de-Bruced.”

Critics of TABOR have argued that it imposes an artificial ceiling on government spending and “severely limited Colorado’s ability to spend on public programs in economic downturns.”

Supporters said it has kept government spending in check and kept taxes lower than where they would have been without TABOR’s limitations.

Additionally, the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding — the one-time federal dollars aimed at helping businesses and people recover from COVID-19 — are drying up, officials said.

County Commissioner Jeff Baker said the recommended budget comes after “some very tough conversations.”

“We’ve worked all year to prioritize services and identify additional areas for cutbacks,” Baker said. “We have been preparing for this for several years now, but it doesn’t lessen the impact.”

The 2025 recommended budget is available online for the public to review and comment.

Commissioners will vote on the budget at a meeting on Dec. 10.