Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 10:30 a.m. (Denver time), City & County Building, room 391
The Finance and Business Committee of the Denver City Council met on November 10, 2026, chaired by Chris Hinds. The committee heard a presentation on two action items creating the Business Impact Opportunity (BIO) Program and an associated special revenue fund to support businesses during long-term city construction projects, including peer-city research and the results of the Colfax BRT analysis showing reduced sales tax collections. Two public commenters spoke about the existing BIO fund's administration and gaps in eligibility. Council members asked about tax relief mechanisms, funding sources, and program flexibility. Both BIO items were moved and approved to full council. The committee then heard a presentation from the Budget and Management Office on a year-end supplemental appropriation of $11.7 million from General Fund contingency for agencies including the Sheriff's Department, City Attorney's Office, and a $2.3 million transfer to the Affordable Housing Fund; that item was moved and approved to full council.
0:06 It's time for this biweekly
0:07 meeting of the finance and
0:08 Business Committee of Denver
0:14 City Council. Join us for the
0:18 finance and business
0:24 Committee. Starting now Good
0:28 morning. It NOVEMBER 10 in
0:29 2026, you've tuned into the
0:30 finance business committee.
0:31 I'm Chris signs of surrender.
0:32 City council representing
0:37 Denver's perfect We have 2
0:39 presentations today. We have
0:43 to action items that are in a
0:43 that talk about the bio fund,
0:45 the Business Impact
0:47 Opportunity Fund and then we
0:48 have presentation about
0:49 supplemental from the
0:52 Department of Finance. Before
0:55 we go into either of them.
0:56 Let's start with a random
0:57 Start with distinguished
1:00 gentleman my left. Good
1:00 morning on their watch and
1:04 fine district. Not. Good
1:05 morning indeed. Com executive
1:07 director to open up
1:10 opportunity. I believe Lucky
1:12 District, 7 District. Mourning
1:15 Diana Romero, Campbell, for
1:17 district 4. I don't think we
1:24 have anyone online. So let's
1:28 move 26 Dash 17, 12 26 Dash
1:29 17, 19 and a black vote
1:30 importance is to create the
1:31 business Impact Opportunity
1:32 Program. Establishing a new
1:35 fund members or you want
1:38 thinking, wait a minute. All
1:39 right. You're the count.
1:40 Number of users to started
1:42 kick us Great. Well, thank
1:44 you, everyone for being here
1:46 be at this point after a long
1:46 again. We're really excited to
1:50 road. Have talking and having
1:51 conversations and trying to
1:54 figure this out. Really
1:55 grateful to the partnership of
1:56 my colleagues, COUNCILMAN
1:57 Sawyer COUNCILMAN Times the
2:00 Department of Economic
2:02 Development with as and the
2:04 administration to get to this
2:06 point so he can go ahead and
2:12 get purpose of this is just
2:13 actually on the next slide.
2:15 Southeast will be going there.
2:18 Denver has several large
2:19 infrastructure projects. As
2:21 you're all aware, the complex
2:22 spirit, he has been the hot
2:23 topic of the moment before
2:26 this that Broadway Bike Lane.
2:27 Something that I was my first
2:27 experience with the buyout
2:30 fund on council. And so I
2:31 think we all agree there's
2:32 future projects coming down
2:33 the line and we need to
2:34 support our business corridors
2:39 during that time. We did do
2:41 care city research. We looked
2:43 into how others and city
2:43 support their businesses
2:45 during construction, San
2:47 Antonio off first direct to
2:50 crack access to help small
2:51 businesses. Businesses must be
2:54 next to the city next to the
2:56 city like construction. The
2:58 project must last longer than
3:00 one and funds must go to
3:02 Business expenses, businesses
3:04 must meet minimum sales levels
3:08 and rely foot traffic
3:09 businesses must to stay in
3:10 their location for one year
3:14 after getting it as well. And
3:15 3.7 million dollar program
3:16 with grants up to $3500 per
3:20 business. Minneapolis version
3:21 offers forgivable loans to
3:25 help small businesses. We must
3:26 be along the Central Corridor.
3:27 Light rail project funds must
3:28 go towards business expenses.
3:32 The loan must be repaid full
3:33 if the business owes are moves
3:35 off the corridor, 4 million
3:35 dollars. It's a quarter
3:38 million dollar program. Here
3:40 with winds up to $10,000 per
3:42 business. The takeaways peer
3:44 cities already support
3:45 businesses through
3:46 construction. And we're
3:47 looking to solidify what we
3:49 have been doing, which is
3:49 provide funding through the
3:50 buyout fund with some other
3:54 options as well. And hand it
3:58 over to my colleague to thinks
4:00 thank you to convert Ashman
4:03 for hot so that I give
4:08 presentations for the next few
4:09 obviously we want make value
4:10 decisions. We also a great day
4:14 to inform decisions we have
4:18 we've asked our economist and
4:18 our Department of Finance to
4:24 do analysis of the impact of
4:25 Colfax bus, Rapid Transit on
4:27 its 3 business improvement
4:28 districts to are in my
4:30 district to Colfax bid in the
4:31 Bluebird business improvement
4:35 District 10 one in
4:35 Councilmember Sawyer's
4:36 district to the Mayfair
4:38 business improvement district.
4:44 And we can see empirically
4:45 sales tax collections were
4:48 lower. Once the brt
4:51 construction started versus 12
4:52 months same months, 12 months
4:55 before which was before the
4:59 brt construction started in
5:00 cities got a clear data
5:01 informed decision that they
5:02 could Colfax peer to
5:05 destruction negatively
5:14 impacted sales tax revenue. So
5:16 the ordinance establishes the
5:18 proposal is to establish some
5:18 Bio Fund in part his me the
5:22 the Avaya funding ordinance
5:25 because I believe Dr Khan is
5:29 this has been around since
5:30 internally within executive
5:33 branch and we want to it.
5:34 Can't write ordinance because
5:36 we believe it has such a great
5:37 success because of the
5:41 leadership of Dino and Dragon
5:42 con. And it's really important
5:43 for us to make sure that our
5:46 businesses continue. When we
5:49 can allow them to do so. So
5:53 there are 3 buckets buckets.
5:57 If a city sponsored city
5:59 funded, course, all
5:59 construction program. Is less
6:01 than 10 million dollars. Then
6:05 the by fun doesn't apply. The
6:07 second bucket is if city is
6:09 sponsored city funding zone
6:12 construction project, he's
6:13 between 10 25 million dollars.
6:14 And in last at least 12
6:15 months, I then the executive
6:18 director currently direct con.
6:21 Consulting with Department of
6:23 Finance MAY require at least
6:24 one percent of city funding
6:29 construction costs go to the
6:32 bio. Find that certain bucket
6:35 is projects that are over.
6:37 25 million dollars. Last at
6:38 least 18 the the via fund
6:43 requirement would be setting
6:43 aside somewhere between one
6:50 and 5% for this. This project.
6:54 So intent, the eligible you
6:57 have to next, it's uncertain.
7:03 Expect my dad, know, you're
7:05 said to be eligible, we want
7:06 to make sure that that we
7:07 don't just give money to
7:09 anyone. These are Denver,
7:10 taxpayer dollars. And so these
7:12 are meant for Denver
7:13 businesses. The rta Bus, Rapid
7:17 Transit does go beyond Denver
7:19 into Aurora. We're going to be
7:23 helping we're going allow the
7:24 great folks who are running
7:25 the city of Aurora to fund
7:27 those businesses. Should they
7:29 choose or anywhere else? So
7:31 there has to be a Denver
7:33 business has to be in good
7:34 standing as registered and
7:36 licensed in the city. More
7:40 also explicitly giving rules
7:41 and regulation guidance or the
7:42 ability for the Department of
7:45 Economic Development and
7:47 Opportunity to 2 additional
7:51 definitions. So next slide.
7:56 This was my to it. So they
7:57 thought of grants and
8:00 technical we want to make sure
8:01 that we have the ability to
8:05 provide grants to eligible
8:08 business businesses. Having a
8:09 2 tier system as far as the
8:11 funding potential funding
8:13 dispersement. If a business
8:17 has an annual gross revenue of
8:18 $100,000 we're Then the grant
8:23 payments should Shelby. Sorry,
8:23 important distinction shall be
8:24 no more than 10% of their
8:29 annual gross revenue. It's
8:29 business. It a revenue greater
8:33 than $100,000. Then the grant
8:34 payments, Shelby, at least
8:37 $15,000. The goal here is not
8:39 to make sure that a business
8:41 can run entirely on city
8:42 support for taxpayer dollars.
8:45 rental and utility assistance,
8:45 The idea is to just with our
8:50 if we can just close the gap
8:53 slightly hand and keep
8:56 businesses business and those
8:57 employees getting paid. And
9:00 that's what we want to do.
9:05 We're also as had in other
9:06 ordinances, were allowing for
9:07 inflation adjustment are
9:08 sorry, not allowing for
9:13 requiring inflation adjustment
9:15 so that ordinance continues to
9:16 be relevant as costs increase
9:18 and the and the city. So and
9:20 again, we're explicitly giving
9:21 rule rules and regulation
9:27 authority to do. Just make
9:30 Kate So the last piece, so
9:33 everything up until this point
9:34 already exists within the but
9:36 what we have called up to this
9:37 point, the bio fund but will
9:38 now be called the bio program,
9:39 the Business Impact
9:41 Opportunity Program. We are
9:45 adding an additional fassitt
9:46 as an option as a tool in the
9:49 tool box for our Department of
9:50 Economic Development support
9:51 businesses. And if you've seen
9:53 over the last few slides, you
9:53 have seen several times where
9:57 we have said additional
9:57 decisions will be determined
9:59 in rules and regs. And the
10:00 reason for that is because
10:03 every project is unique, every
10:04 construction project that we
10:06 do has unique facets to it has
10:07 a different costs, has a
10:09 different capital stack all of
10:13 these different things that
10:13 that make it. So we want to
10:16 make sure that d do has the
10:17 flexibility to determine the
10:21 best path forward. One of the
10:22 things that doesn't exist now
10:24 that we think is an added tool
10:26 in the tool box should
10:27 determined that it is the
10:29 appropriate path forward for a
10:31 specific project. His tax
10:31 assistance payments. This is a
10:32 little bit more complicated
10:36 because this is a Tabor issue.
10:36 So the state Constitution,
10:39 taxpayer Bill of rights
10:43 requires the taxes be paid. We
10:44 can rebates them as an option.
10:47 We do that right now on our
10:48 property tax assistance
10:48 program within our Department
10:53 of Housing, stability. But
10:53 that is a very specific
10:54 question that there are a lot
10:55 of moving parts here. And
10:58 there's a lot of legal
10:59 requirements here. So what the
11:00 ordinance language actually
11:03 says is as allowed by law
11:05 because depending on what
11:07 happens, the law might be
11:08 different in some spaces are
11:11 was some projects that it is
11:13 and others. As the sponsors,
11:14 we felt very strongly that we
11:16 wanted to add tax assistance
11:17 as an option in the tool box
11:21 for Dino to use. Should they
11:22 make the determination that
11:25 this is what's appropriate for
11:27 a specific project? So it is
11:29 written in Again, this is a
11:30 Tabor issue. There are some
11:31 very clear in specific
11:32 requirements by a law that we
11:33 would have to follow in order
11:36 to do offer rebates for
11:37 certain And so that really
11:39 needs to be determined on a
11:40 project by project basis. But
11:43 it is on the table as an
11:44 option in the formalized
11:47 program, existing ordinance.
11:48 And then the other thing that
11:49 we're doing and this is why
11:51 we're moving to pieces in a
11:52 block. So the second piece of
11:54 legislation you see in front
11:56 of you is a special revenue
11:58 fund. It's the creation of a
11:59 special revenue fund specific
12:02 to the bio program. And the
12:03 reason for this is because
12:04 these projects are lasting
12:07 more than a year in order
12:08 qualify for the bio program
12:08 has to be more than 12 months
12:12 or more than 18 months. And
12:13 therefore, we need to have a
12:15 associated with it so that
12:15 special revenue fund
12:18 Dino doesn't have to either
12:19 forced to contract out by the
12:20 end of the year to make sure
12:21 that those dollars are
12:22 obligated so they don't go
12:24 back to the general fund grant
12:27 out all those dollars so that
12:28 they don't go back to the
12:29 general fund. The even Wendy
12:32 not ready to do that on a
12:33 certain creating a special
12:35 revenue fund specific to this
12:37 project. It allows the dollars
12:41 to go over year over year
12:42 rollover so that these
12:44 dollars. All right, there for
12:46 the projects when they are
12:48 needed over time instead of
12:51 having to have an issue every
12:51 single year where we are
12:55 funding the bio fund. The
12:57 other thing that's written in
12:58 his reporting requirements, we
12:59 have started to do this as a
13:00 best practice moving forward
13:01 to just ensure that city
13:04 council is reported to you on
13:05 whether the program is
13:06 working, what the dollar
13:07 values have been, what the
13:10 impact has been making sure
13:11 that we are getting an
13:12 appropriate, our ally, all of
13:13 those different kinds of
13:16 things. And so the timeline,
13:21 as you can see, we're here and
13:22 we will move into hopefully
13:25 adoption in 2026 so that it
13:27 can be the effective date is
13:28 JANUARY 1st of 2027 so it can
13:32 be moved forward. And with
13:35 we're gonna questions. Thank
13:40 you for the Welcome Council
13:42 pro consoles can turns to
13:44 table. We have the beginnings
13:45 of the queue will start with a
13:48 fine. We have public comment.
13:48 Yes, we're doing was not aware
13:50 of that started. Thank you
13:51 very much. So sorry. We have
13:53 folks signed up and speaker
13:58 named John Bell in person in
14:04 person. John Microphone. Get 2
14:06 minutes hopefully you'll see
14:10 your time on the screen over
14:12 here. Given sure think can
14:12 thank you, members of council
14:13 for time you mind coming up
14:17 together. Sure. Of that. Thank
14:17 you. Members of Council for
14:19 your time work on this
14:19 Speaking as someone whose
14:21 organization facts,
14:23 partnership as work directly
14:26 with businesses and also with
14:27 Tito ministering buy a fund
14:30 for the past 2 And want to I
14:32 don't really happy for guns
14:34 statement about the scope of
14:36 the program because I believe
14:37 it's essential to keep it
14:39 going. As mentioned before.
14:40 There was indeed a study that
14:41 showed that 95% of businesses
14:43 who received the grant have
14:46 managed to stay open. With
14:48 that, a lot of construction
14:49 that's been happening isn't
14:50 linear. And there's been a lot
14:52 of businesses who've actually
14:53 seen their eligibility expired
14:58 before they have the actual
14:59 detrimental effect of the
15:02 construction. I know how
15:03 difficult it is for accounts
15:04 put together that can be
15:04 equitable to all businesses
15:05 and recognize that everyone
15:08 should get an equal shot. But
15:11 there are circumstances where
15:12 businesses are are kind of
15:13 being left behind because of
15:19 that So what on set was
15:20 especially for business on the
15:21 side of Colfax where
15:22 construction is essentially
15:23 affected him for about 2 years
15:26 now, even though the direct
15:28 construction has only been for