Denver City Council rejects 2026 budget, but plan still takes effect

The Denver Metropolis Council ceremoniously rejected town’s new finances for 2026 on Monday, with a number of members citing considerations over transparency from the mayor’s workplace as the rationale they voted no.

The finances will nonetheless be enacted, nevertheless, due to deadlines and provisions within the metropolis’s constitution.

The vote was cut up 6-6, however any proposal earlier than the council that ends in a tie vote robotically fails. Most members who voted in opposition to the finances mentioned they discovered the monthslong course of, which is spearheaded by Mayor Mike Johnston’s workplace, irritating.

“Collaboration requires honesty,” Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez mentioned. “And at this level, there are nonetheless unanswered questions and unresolved considerations that I can’t overlook.”

The $1.66 billion common fund finances, which is reducing about 6% from this 12 months’s spending, is a part of an total finances of $5.4 billion. Earlier than proposing the finances, the mayor’s administration laid off 169 staff and eradicated tons of of vacant positions to assist shut a $200 million hole.

The council’s dynamic with Johnston’s workplace has gotten more and more tense in latest months, making Monday’s vote the most recent chip of their relationship. Final week, the council thought of 27 amendments to the finances — essentially the most ever proposed in latest historical past. It permitted 10 and the mayor agreed Friday to just accept all of them.

Town constitution says a finances not handed by the council will take impact with any totally handed amendments.

Monday’s vote seems to be the primary time the council has rejected a finances in latest reminiscence. A spokesman for the council mentioned he wasn’t certain if the council had ever rejected a finances. A spokeswoman for the Division of Finance mentioned the council had rejected the finances “many occasions” however didn’t say precisely when.

An article in the Rocky Mountain News from 1986 reported the council rejecting then-Mayor Federico Peña’s proposed finances for 1987.