Mayor Hancock’s plan includes big transportation spike, housing initiatives and money for opioid crisis
Excess marijuana-tax proceeds would help pay for transportation projects, parks-and-recreation center fixes, and a new community-input program next year under a $2 billion budget proposal unveiled Tuesday by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.
As Denver draws on money flowing in from legalized recreational marijuana, the city in 2018 also would more directly confront the opioid crisis that has affected communities across the country. Hancock’s proposal includes more than $1 million for new and expanded support services that address addiction to heroin, pain relievers and synthetic drugs.
By and large, however, Hancock’s proposal marks another in a series of boom-time budgets that take advantage of Denver’s economic success to expand in a number of areas that Hancock and City Council members previously laid out as priorities.
Those include long-deferred problems — such as crumbling sidewalks — and attempting to address economic inequality and other issues that are mounting side effects of the city’s rapid population growth.
“This is a spending plan that will allow us to manage population growth and continue to deliver the highest-quality services to the people of Denver,” Hancock said during a morning news conference. “The 2018 budget proposes smart investments that will allow us to directly meet our most pressing challenges. … This spending plan will improve transportation, connect more residents to economic opportunities, help make Denver more affordable for families, assist those in need and strengthen our neighborhoods.”
Read more here: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/12/denver-budget-proposal-marijuana-money-transportation-spending/
