Proposed Greeley budget cuts would shrink economic development work as council presses for more shovel-ready sites

Proposed cuts to Greeley’s Economic Development and Urban Revitalization department would reduce partner-agency funding, eliminate the city’s workforce development function and trim business-attraction capacity, even as council members said the city needs more investment-ready sites and infrastructure to grow future revenue.

The department was assigned a 25% reduction target, about $659,000. Staff said that would be met through roughly $469,000 in expense cuts and $190,000 in new revenue. The proposal includes about $86,000 in savings from reduced funding to outside partners, a shift to a shared business analyst model, and new administrative support fees tied to urban renewal work. Staff said the changes would mean less grant support for partner agencies, fewer workforce-development initiatives, reduced startup support and weaker lead generation for business recruitment.

Mayor Dale Hall asked what work would be lost with the elimination of the workforce-development role. A staff presenter said the city had been coordinating with educational institutions, major employers and high schools on training gaps, but that several other organizations already work in that space. The city’s workforce development manager is now handing that work off to partner entities, the presenter said. Hall urged staff to include trade unions in that transition, saying carpenters, plumbers and pipefitters could help fill the gap.

Hall also questioned whether regional partner Upstate Colorado had produced results for Greeley. Staff said the city has had several successes over the years and some recent “near misses” in which Greeley was a finalist but not selected. The presenter said Upstate remains the city’s most stable source of lead generation for primary employers and asked council to consider weighted cuts rather than applying the same reduction to every partner. Hall said attracting outside companies expands property-tax and other revenue and argued Greeley should aim to be “that first call” for Colorado businesses looking for a better fit.

Council Member Johnny Olson said economic development is one of the city’s top priorities because new revenue will be needed to avoid repeated budget shortfalls. Olson warned against weakening ties with Upstate, the Downtown Development Authority and other partners, saying the city has to get better at converting close calls into landed projects. He also pointed to the Catalyst project as something the city should try to preserve.

Council members and staff repeatedly returned to a broader problem: Greeley is losing prospects because key sites are not ready. In postmortems on failed recruitment efforts, staff said the common issues are lack of power, water and sewer delivery, infrastructure and shovel-ready lots. One business was lost this year because sewer service would not be available for six months when the company needed it, staff said.

Hall emphasized that the issue is not a shortage of water but the ability to deliver it to sites. Staff said the city is working with community development and utility teams on ways to build more shovel-ready inventory, especially vacant flex space, and said the industrial water bank will be a major advantage. The staff presenter said infrastructure tied to projects such as Catalyst and Cascadia was never meant to serve only those developments, but to open up a much larger area of west Greeley for future growth, including Delandero and other nearby properties.

The discussion came during Item 8, a broader budget review. No vote was taken in this portion of the meeting, but council members signaled resistance to cuts that could reduce business recruitment and partner support at the same time the city is trying to prepare more sites for development.