The 2015 General Fund is expected to increase by 3%. Unfortunately, the budget that the Mayor has presented to the City Council calls for a $643,000 cut to the Parks Department, AND some members of city council suggest taking money from TOPS to pay for watering parks.
We are concerned about these developments.
Parks took the biggest budget cuts during the recession. We are still not back to 2008 funding levels. Rather than reduce general fund support, we should be increasing it! Especially with a 3% overall increase in tax revenue.
When the Mayor and council proposed a change to the TOPS program in 2013, TOSC wanted to make sure that the change wouldn’t mean less money for Parks in the long run–MORE money from TOPS and even LESS money from the General fund. We wanted parks to receive MORE overall money for maintenance, so we can take care of what we have. We asked for a “maintenance of effort” clause. In other words, if voters agreed to allow more of TOPS to be used for maintaining parks,our elected officials would NOT use TOPS money for things already covered by the general fund. Mayor and city council refused to add the clause and promised that it was not their intent to use TOPS for water, traditionally covered by the general fund. But that’s exactly what some members of council are suggesting. Please help us remind them to keep their promises, take care of our parks and keep TOPS intact.
Please email your City Council members, and the Mayor, and let them know, our Parks are important for our quality of life and economic development. We need to fund them properly, and provide for their maintenance. Please ask them to INCREASE the Parks budget, and to leave TOPS alone–don’t use it to water parks!

  • Mayor Steve Bach, sbach@springsgov.com
  • Don Knight, dknight@springsgov.com District 1
  • Joel Miller, jcmiller@springsgov.com District 2
  • Keith King, kcking@springsgov.com District 3
  • Helen Collins, hcollins@springsgov.com District 4
  • Jill Gaebler jgaebler@springsgov.com District 5
  • Andy Pico, apico@springsgov.com District 6
  • Jan Martin, jmartin@springsgov.com At Large
  • Val Snider, vsnider@springsgov.com At Large
  • Merv Bennett, mbennett@springsgov.com At Large
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