Colorado Springs mayor discusses first 90 days in office

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers has now been in office for 90 days, and he said he has made progress on his priorities.

His top three priorities are improving the political climate in the city, infrastructure and job creation. One of the main infrastructure needs is fixing stormwater problems.

“We’ve been negotiating and essentially the council and I are proposing to reconstruct the stormwater fund and commit about a minimum of $19 million a year for the next 10 years to stormwater projects,” he said. “Not only for the public health, safety and welfare of the people of Colorado Springs, but also to improve the flood situation downstream.”

He said coming up with part of that money – $8 million – meant city employees won’t get raises and necessary capital improvement projects won’t get done.

The other big infrastructure issue is road repair. Suthers said 53 percent of roads need to be resurfaced and 8 percent need to be reconstructed. And to do that, the city needs an additional $50 million a year.

Voters will vote this November whether to approve a .62 percent sales tax increase specifically for roads. It would generate $50 million a year over the next five years.

“If I could find the money, I wouldn’t ask them for the money,” he said. “I have looked at every inch of this budget, my predecessor looked at every inch of the budget, we do not have the kind of money we need to accelerate our road repairs in the way we need to do it.”

But not everyone agrees with the mayor. The group Americans for Prosperity worked with a budget auditor and said the money is there. On Facebook, a sponsored post from the group asks people to “Say No to More Taxes.”

“Any time you have an issue campaign, you’re going to have advertising for it, and you’re going to have a group like Americans for Prosperity who are against it,” he said. “And the voters are just going to have to decide who’s right, ‘Is the mayor right, we don’t have the money to fix the roads without this tax, or are these guys correct?’ All I can do is when they say something to the voters, ‘Oh here’s where they get it,’ if they’re wrong, I’m going to tell them.”

Suthers said during his time as mayor, he wants to “build a city that matches our scenery.” He will speak about that and his priorities when he reaches his first 100 days in office next Wednesday.