Boulder city budget on the uptick
Aug 30th
Recommended city budget provides limited and targeted growth in 2013
On Sept. 11, Boulder City Council will begin considering a proposed 2013 budget that supports master plans accepted by council in 2012, restores partial funding for police and firefighter training, and continues funding for existing community programs and services.
City officials said that while the local economy is improving slowly, the city’s General Fund revenues will see only modest increases in 2013. As a result, City Manager Jane Brautigam recommends continuing the conservative approach initiated during the economic downturn; limited new funding will be allocated to programs supporting the highest community priorities next year, including economic vitality initiatives and significant investments in Boulder’s public facilities and infrastructure made possible by voters in November 2011.
The $256 million Recommended Budget includes $33 million in capital improvement plan spending – an increase of $10 million over 2012 levels.
“Boulder is in a stable financial position, and the conservative approach taken over the past few years has helped the city to become more efficient and effective with public dollars,” said Brautigam. “Our focus on cost recovery, restructuring city functions and not using one-time revenues to pay for on-going expenses has enabled Boulder to reduce the projected $135 million annual structural gap identified by the Blue Ribbon Commission in 2008 to $75 million annually by 2030.
“Boulder’s guiding principles of separating one-time revenues from ongoing expenditures also emphasizes the need to accurately project future one-time costs in order to carefully save over several years in preparation for those expenditures to avoid impacting Boulder’s base budget,” added Brautigam. “Because the city purposely saved for the future, we are prepared to pay as we go for planned one-time expenditures without negative impacts to the 2013 base budget.”
The 2012 Boulder City Council is keeping an eye on revenue and expenses.
The recommended base budget reflects a 2 percent increase in base budget expenditures compared to the 2012 approved budget. Boulder saved an additional $16 million outside of that base budget to pay for one-time expenses that will be incurred next year. Most of that amount consists of funding for important transportation projects leveraged by the city using state and federal sources; a once every 11- to 12-year pay-period liability associated with Boulder’s biweekly pay system, and expenditures for Boulder’s Energy Future that are now included in the city’s budget document to reflect revenues approved by the voters in November 2011.
In addition to the continued long-term emphasis to stabilize revenues and expenditures, the Recommended Budget addresses community and council priorities with a major emphasis in the following areas:
- Restore non-personnel funding for police and firefighter training that was reduced during the economic downturn;
- Provide additional resources for Boulder’s Energy Future, the Civic Area Master Plan and adding a resource officer for homelessness initiatives;
- Carry out steps needed to implement master plans and department assessments, some of which began in the 2012 budget;
- Continue and strengthen the commitment to economic sustainability; and
- Boost the capacity of the city to renew its infrastructure and invest in technology.
The Recommended Budget provides for targeted growth in priority programs, adding one standard full-time equivalent (FTE) employee and 5.5 fixed-term FTEs in the General Fund to address these community initiatives.
Council is scheduled to begin studying the city manager’s 2013 recommended budget at its Tuesday, Sept. 11, study session. The study session will be aired live on Channel 8.
City Manager’s 2013 Recommended Budget is available online.
Boulder Sheriff bans open fires in mountain areas
Aug 30th
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tomorrow (August 31, 2012) at 12:00 p.m., Sheriff Joe Pelle will enact a fire ban for the mountain areas of unincorporated Boulder County. Colorado is currently experiencing one of the driest summers in history. The fire danger has been increasing rapidly over the course of the last several weeks, and the moisture content in large fuels, (logs and trees), has fallen to dangerous levels. The forecast continues to call for high temperatures and minimal precipitation.
Tomorrow (August 31, 2012) at 12:00 p.m., Sheriff Joe Pelle will enact a fire ban for the mountain areas of unincorporated Boulder County. Colorado is currently experiencing one of the driest summers in history. The fire danger has been increasing rapidly over the course of the last several weeks, and the moisture content in large fuels, (logs and trees), has fallen to dangerous levels. The forecast continues to call for high temperatures and minimal precipitation.
NOAA extends CU climate studies partnership for 5-10 years
Aug 30th
NOAA selects CU-Boulder to
continue joint leadership of CIRES
continue joint leadership of CIRES
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has selected the University of Colorado Boulder to continue a federal/academic partnership that extends NOAA’s ability to study climate change, improve weather models and better predict how solar storms can disrupt communication and navigation technologies.
The selection means that NOAA will continue funding the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, for at least five years and up to 10 more years. CIRES was established at CU-Boulder in 1967.
The amount of the award is contingent on the availability of funding in the federal budget, but NOAA anticipates that up to $32 million may be available annually. Total NOAA funding is variable from year to year and is based on the number of projects the university proposes and NOAA approves.
Following a competitive process, NOAA selected CU-Boulder to administer the CIRES partnership which leverages university resources to expand understanding of the “Earth system” — the interrelationships among the atmosphere, oceans, land, living things and the sun’s energy.
“Improving our understanding of the Earth system is critically important as the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is forcing changes in all of its processes,” said Robert Detrick, assistant administrator of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and chairman of the NOAA Research Council. “The University of Colorado has been an excellent partner to NOAA in pursuing this mission.”
NOAA’s first cooperative institute, CIRES is marking its 45th anniversary this year and is now one of 18 NOAA cooperative institutes nationwide. NOAA competitively funds cooperative institutes at universities with strong research programs relevant to NOAA’s mission. These institutes provide resources and opportunities that extend beyond the agency’s own research capacity.
“Partnership in environmental research with the NOAA Boulder laboratories is the keystone of CIRES research,” said CIRES Interim Director William Lewis Jr. “We have great ambitions in joint research with NOAA over the next five years.”
The partnership allows researchers at CU-Boulder to receive support for research projects that may involve NOAA scientists, primarily at the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder as well as other NOAA cooperative institutes.
The CIRES partnership will focus on nine research themes:
- Air quality in a changing environment
- Climate forcing feedbacks and analysis
- Earth systems dynamics, variability and change
- Management and exploitation of geophysical data
- Regional science and applications
- Scientific outreach and education
- Space weather understanding and predictability
- Stratospheric processes and trends
- Systems and prediction models development
“With pressing issues like air quality, climate change and space weather now at the forefront globally, the University of Colorado Boulder is eager to continue this crucial partnership with NOAA,” said CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture. “CIRES is known around the world for advancing our understanding of the complex Earth system and as a premier institution in educating the next generation of environmental scientists.”
NOAA supports cooperative institutes to conduct research, education, training and outreach aligned with its mission. Cooperative institutes also promote the involvement of students and postdoctoral scientists in NOAA-funded research. This unique setting provides NOAA the benefit of working with the complementary capabilities of a research institution that contribute to NOAA-related sciences ranging from satellite climatology and fisheries biology to atmospheric chemistry and coastal ecology.
For more information on CIRES visit http://cires.colorado.edu/. For more information on NOAA Cooperative Institutes visit http://www.nrc.noaa.gov/ci.
