October 4, 2022 – The El Paso County Financial Services Department presented the 2023 Preliminary Balanced Budget at the October 4, 2022, Board of County Commissioners meeting. El Paso County is responsible for providing essential public services, including ensuring public safety and health and maintaining critical infrastructures such as roads, bridges, and stormwater.
El Paso County provides efficient and cost-effective services to its residents, with the lowest county property tax, mill levy requirements, and tax cost per citizen average of any of the ten largest counties in the state. The preliminary budget for the upcoming year aims to balance the needs of providing vital public services while also planning conservatively for the future. Additionally, the budget includes a Property Tax Temporary Mill Levy Reduction of 0.384 mills and a 3.251 mill property tax credit refunding $30.7 million from 2021 excess revenues.
“The preliminary budget reflects our goals of strengthening critical infrastructure, delivering quality services, and ensuring public safety and health while maintaining financial prudence,” said Nikki Simmons, El Paso County CFO. “El Paso County is the most populous county in the state. Yet, the County continues to have the lowest property tax burden and the lowest cost per citizen for delivering high-impact services out of the ten largest counties in the state. We are committed to investing in high-quality services and infrastructure that will positively impact our community.”
The $473 million preliminary balanced budget includes $200 million in unrestricted general fund expenditures, $38 million for the Department of Public Works, and $84 million for Human Services. The preliminary balanced budget also addresses various critical needs of the county, including increased service demands, population growth, and unfunded mandates from the legislature and governor. The 2023 preliminary budget prioritizes investments in:
- Road Infrastructure– $11.9 million additional is dedicated to keeping our roads safe and maintained. This allocation includes a one-time $10 million funding increase for roads to strategically address high-priority projects and $1.9 million for gravel road maintenance. This brings the Road and Bridge budget to $38 million.
- Public Safety – $89 million of the unrestricted general fund is allocated to public safety to keep our community safe. The public safety allocation is 44% of the total unrestricted general fund. In addition, $38 million of public safety expenditures will be funded from the County’s 0.23% restricted public safety tax.
- Veteran Services – $84,000 is allocated for a Veteran’s Appeals Specialist to assist Veterans in navigating the VA’s process and enhance support for over 100,000 veterans in El Paso County.
- Park Maintenance – $160,000 for the maintenance and to enhance El Paso County parks in eastern El Paso County so that everyone can enjoy the beauty of our parks.
- Facility Enhancements – $1 million has been allocated to strengthen the county’s facilities to continue providing services and making the facilities more accessible to the community.
- Homeless Camp Cleanup – $150,000 is allocated for cleaning up homeless camps throughout El Paso County to help make our community safer, healthier, and cleaner.
Members of the public may attend and comment on the budget during any of the below meetings. The meetings are held at 9:00 am, in the Commissioner’s Hearing Room at Centennial Hall, 200 South Cascade Avenue.
The remaining 2023 El Paso County Budget hearing schedule is as follows:
2023 Original Adopted Budget Hearing 2 – October 18, 2022
Department/Offices Critical Needs Presentations
2023 Original Adopted Budget Hearing 3 – October 20, 2022
Department/Offices Critical Needs Presentations
2023 Original Adopted Budget Hearing 4 – November 15, 2022
BoCC Direction on the 2023 Original Adopted Budget
2023 Budget Hearing – December 6, 2022
Resolution to Adopt the 2023 Original Adopted Budget
[Statutory Deadline – December 15, 2022 C.R.S 29-1-108 (2) and (3)]
Resolution to Certify the County Mill Levy
[Statutory Deadline – December 15, 2022 C.R.S 39-5-128 (1)]
Resolution to Authorize the Treasurer to Transfer between Funds
[Statutory Deadline – December 31, 2022 C.R.S 29-1-108 (4)]
Adoption of the five Public Improvement Districts, 2023 Budgets
The 2023 Preliminary Balanced Budget may be viewed online at the El Paso County website by going to https://admin.elpasoco.com/financial-services/budget-finance/county-budget/.