What's Happening in Broomfield

Broomfield Budget Financial Audit

The City and County of Broomfield will discuss the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for 2025 at the July 14, 2026 regular council meeting. The ACFR is a complete, audited picture of where your tax dollars come from, how the City And County of Broomfield spends it, and the overall financial health of our community.

It includes information on everything from roads and parks to water systems and reserves. While the full report is technical, its purpose is to provide transparency and accountability so residents, elected officials, and investors can see how well Broomfield is managing public resources. In short, the ACFR helps ensure our local government is operating responsibly and planning for the future.

The independent audit of Broomfield’s ACFR provides reasonable assurance that the financial statements are materially accurate and follow government accounting standards. However, it is not a deep forensic review and does not evaluate whether spending decisions were efficient or the best use of taxpayer dollars.

At first glance, the report looks like Broomfield is in great shape. It has a consistent positive change in net position (pg 151). Revenues (especially sales taxes) grew in 2025 through a mix of of tax, user fees, and grants (which taxpayers pay for). It appears to have a good infrastructure focus, and the reserves show solid liquidity and fund balances.

That said, there are clear risks reflected in the ACFR:

• Program revenues < expenses in many governmental functions they're spending more than they're bringing in)
• Pension/Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) liabilities as these are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis.
• Reliance on sales/property taxes which are sensitive to economic cycles, though currently strong).
• Restatements noted (prior-year adjustments for errors, but corrected and disclosed).

As in previous years, we are looking at this year's ACFR and dig a little deeper.

Property Taxes & Sales/Use Taxes

How have the property and sales taxes changed since last year?

Property tax revenue collected in 2025 in the amount of $124,505,093, an increase of 2.7% over the prior year.

Sales and Use Tax revenue for 2025 was $111,460,000, and increase of 16.8% over the prior year. Population increased by 1.2% over the prior year.

Building Activity

New Single Family Permits (2021/2025): 223/81

Multi-Family Permits: (2021/2025): 300/39

New Business: (2021/2025): 10/6

Total (2021/2025): 4754/4157

What does this mean? Building Activity is at an all-time low. More permits are being issued for existing property improvements.That makes it hard to provide affordable housing. It also, makes it hard to support infrastructure, water tap fees used to support some of the building.

Broomfield's slew of regulations are contributing to the decrease in new building permits.

Here what Broomfield's own building regulations add to the cost each new residential unit:

• EV ready homes (adds Adds $1,000–$3,000+)
• solar-ready homes ($500–$2,000+)
• fire-suppression systems ( $5,000–$15,000+)
• All electric mandates ($10,000–$20,000+), city not here yet
• Inclusionary housing (20% subsidized units in multi-family) — This is one of the biggest. 

Is this why the Broomfield Town Square has hit a snag?

Mayor's Term - Up for Ballot Measure - Again

The Broomfield Council is considering asking you AGAIN to vote on increasing the term of the Broomfield Mayor from 2 to 4 years. Councilmember Todd Cohen brought forward proposed Ordinance 2309 to change the term of office for future mayors from 2 years to 4 years, and limiting future mayors to two terms instead of three terms - The net is a longer total term for the Broomfield Mayor.

Councilmember Cohen (maybe he's thinking of running for mayor?) brought this forward again just 2 years after Broomfield voter clearly said NO in 2024.

In fact, Broomfield voters rejected a similar ballot measure 58.14% (no) to 41.86% (yes) - a 16% margin!

Why isn't the Council listening to the will of the voters? Why is this so important to the Council?

Once again, they are not listening to those they represent. They did the same on property taxes (Proposition HH). And how may surveys have they done to justify raising sales taxes? They seem to be justifying asking the voters - again - to increase the mayors term to enable effective long-term planning and execution of like infrastructure upgrades, economic development, and public safety improvements.

But that is not they mayor's job. It is the city manager's job.

These are the roles of each position in a council-manager government structure:

1. City Council (including the Mayor) → Sets policy, approves budgets, hires the City Manager.
2. City Manager → Runs the government on a daily basis (all departments report to them).
3. Mayor → Primarily a leadership and ceremonial role with limited voting power (tie-breaker only).

They argue that a longer term is needed because the mayor spends too much time campaigning. However, in recent elections the mayor has not campaigned heavily and has not needed to raise or spend large amounts of money. The mayor in 2025, had a total of $1635 in campaign contributions, and spent $2634, compared to other elections.

Proponents also point to other communities that have made this change, suggesting Broomfield should follow suit. Yet they simultaneously claim that everything in Broomfield is going well. This raises an important question: If the current system is working effectively, what specific problem are we trying to solve?

And, keep in mind that the current Mayor Guyleen Castriotta has been on the Broomfield Council as either Ward 5 councilmember or Broomfield mayor since 2017. That is nine straight years. By the time that Mayor Castriotta completes her current term, she will have been mayor for 6 years, and on council for a decade.

Rather than listening to voters and honoring your vote - like they have with other Charter ballot measures - the Broomfield Council wants to extend their seats of power. Extending the mayor's term has never been an urgent issue in the past. The push for change may simply reflect a desire to spend more time in the position or push for a commissioner form of government, rather than address a genuine problem.

Police Building Expansion on the July 14 Council Agenda

At the July 14 Broomfield Council Meeting, the Council will consider two resolutions related to the Police Building Expansion project.

• Resolution 2026-67 approves a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) amendment to the construction contract with FCI Constructors, Inc. This sets the upper limit for construction costs and allows the project to move forward.

• Resolution 2026-88 approves the third amendment to the consulting agreement with Anderson Mason Dale Architects (AMD) for continued architectural and design services.

At the March 11, 2025 council meeting, the council passed a First Amendment to the Consulting Agreement with Anderson Mason Dale Architects, P.C. (AMD) for the design of the proposed Police Building at a cost of $5,055,770. There are also 2 additional amendments to the design agreement.

During the July 14 Council meeting, Amendment 2 to the CM/GC agreement establishes a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $67,090,837 for the new Police Building. This includes $169,557 previously approved for pre-construction services and $66,921,280 for the actual construction phase.

It is important to note that the 2026 Broomfield Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes a budget of $85,055,770, $80,000,000 of which is budgeted to be spent in 2026. See pages 20 and 70 of the 2026 5-year CIP Plan.

If passed by council, construction would start at the end of July 2026, and is expected be complete in 21 months, March 2028 and police are expected to move in by April of 2028.

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