The Aspen Budget: Tales from the Campaign

Funds accounting, or governmental accounting, or municipal accounting is different than regular book-keeping.  It's pretty complicated. CAFR...what?  The City of Aspen has 6100 registered voters and 3200 actual voters per the last election.  The City of Aspen also has a huge budget.  It's 480 pages and weighs about 8 pounds.  

The total budgeted revenues for 2015 are $123,465,148.  Appropriations are budgeted at $124,206,420.  This includes $31,241,680 in inter-fund transfers.  An inter fund transfer is a double journal entry...so if you subtract that out the total budget is almost $93,000,000.   The operating budget is $60 million. Capital Outlays are $27.5 million and we pay $5.5 million in debt service.  

It doesn't take a Wharton MBA or a C.P.A. to know that is a lot of green.  Any way you slice it...Aspen is overflowing with money.   It's an incredible amount of cash flowing through the coffers of a very small...but high profile mountain town at the end of the road.  Hunter S. Thompson was right when he nick-named Aspen..."Fat City"

To call me a financial expert would be a compliment.  For most of the past 12 years i've been skiing and blogging and FBing and tweeting.  But my spider senses are tingling.  I'll be digging into the 2015 Aspen Budget. Trying to figure out why we need a new 55,000 sq ft City Hall with cost estimates of $40 mil....errrrr $80 mil....errrrr $120 mil.

Just because Aspen has an embarrassment of riches...doesn't mean we should keep making poor decisions about money and growth.  

VOTE: ANDY 4 ASPEN

Kissing Babies and other campaign tales from Aspen.

Office Hours on Ajax. Vote: Andy 4 Aspen.I am now firmly entrenched in a political campaign in Aspen.  I am running for City Council.  There are 2 seats available and 7 candidates running.   

Not just in Aspen...but all over America there seems to be a disconnect between the citizens and their elected officials.  Trust...seems like a thing of the past in our country.  Finally, I am moved to take action.  To stand up and be heard.  I'm not a politician...I'm a ski bum / blogger and a former numbers guy.    Yes my education and experience is exceptional...but in this race that makes me under-qualified...or over-qualified depending on your viewpoint.  But I will tell you one thing...I like it when other people under-estimate me.  

Perhaps you've seen my simple platform:

1) No 7 hour meetings.   Reasonable people do not conduct public businees at 1 am

2) Simplify the Zoning Code.   Lets make one set of rules and enforce them consistently.

3) Fiscal Responsibility.  Just because Aspen has a $100+ million budget, doesn't mean we need to make poor decisions about money.

I've learned a lot in the first week of my first campaign.  I've learned its easy to be a critic and very difficult to be a leader.  I'm going to do my best, because I believe in the future of Aspen, because I love Aspen and I want to help Aspen be the best Aspen possible, and I'm just the guy to do it.

So I'm out there kissing babies and other stuff.

CLICK 4 the RECENT INK ABOUT ANDY 4 ASPEN.

ACRA Forum (video)

Probeline with BGS (video)

Aspen Democratic Forum (video)

Aspen Times on Election Social Media

ASPEN DAILY NEWS Q & A.

Residency Issue (Aspen Times)

THE ASPEN TIMES

ASPEN PUBLIC RADIO (NPR)

The Politics of Aspen

This was a recent letter to the Editor in The Aspen Times and The Aspen Daily News about the upcoming election in Aspen.  Please Vote on May 7.

GOOD CLEAN FUN.

Dear Editor

Now that all 4 current City Council members have indicated their intentions to run for Mayor and the sitting Mayor intends to run for City Council, Aspen’s May 7, 2013 election is shaping up to be a doozie.

I’m not really into politics; I’m into quality of life.  That’s why I live in Aspen.  I’m not sure yet who I’m voting for this coming May, but urge I all the candidates to consider the following issues:

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY:  I’m a former numbers guy.  Just eye-ballin’ it…I see a tremendous amount of waste, over-spending and bureaucracy at City Hall.   I understand how Government works…departments get budgeted dollars…and then they figure out how spend them.   Someone needs to take a sharp pencil to the budget to ensure that our tax dollars are being spent wisely.   Wasting money is bad form.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP:   Aspen is a clear leader in the Green Movement, as it should continue to be.  Our high profile position in the climate change debate has a direct relationship to the future viability of our town.  We need to continue to be innovative and progressive in this area…again without wasting money.   In Aspen proper, we need to preserve our parks and open spaces rather than tear them up with bulldozers.  Parklets will not cut it in Aspen.

SMART GROWTH:  Over the years Aspen has evolved into a nucleus of greed.  There will always be some people who view Aspen as an investment opportunity…rather than for her natural beauty and small town character.  Fine, then let developers build within the rules of the zoning code.  Smart growth is O.K. , but no more back room deals, no more offsets and special situations.   No more…”we’ll give you this, if you do that”.  No more lawsuits.   If speculators want to invest in Aspen, they should have a clear understanding, ahead of time, of what they can do with their property.  The biggest and best use is fine…but bigger than that… isn’t.

Between now and May 7, I expect there will be a lot of mud slinging from various camps and by many  of  the vocal, local gadflies, many of whom don’t even vote in Aspen.  Maybe that’s why the City of Aspen holds their elections during mud season?    Hopefully this time around things will be civil.   It’s easy to criticize, but much more difficult to build a consensus.

How ever the ballots are cast in May, I hope the next regime moves forward in a positive and constructive direction.   Good luck to all the candidates and here’s hoping for a good clean election.

AspenSpin

Aspen, Colorado