Oct. 12--This is the third story in a six-day examination of city finances. Stories later this week will look at road paving, transit, and the city's main sources of revenue.

Kurt Schroeder hit the lottery.

Not by luck or chance, but by necessity.

To understand why, go back nearly a decade.

At the start of the century, the Parks, Trails and Open Space Division of Colorado Springs city government received $341,000 from the state Conservation Trust Fund, only a share of the millions of dollars of lottery proceeds going to the city.

The $341,000 went toward park maintenance, and the rest of the lottery money poured into construction and renovation projects, such as replacing playgrounds and irrigation systems and building pedestrian bridges.

But as the years went by and utilities, commodities and other costs increased, less lottery money was set aside for shiny new projects, and the division started to get a bigger share for maintenance, from buying fertilizer and repairing sprinkler heads to paying employee salaries.

Fast-forward to 2009.

While the division's piece of the general-fund budget, which pays for day-to-day operations, dropped 28 percent from 2000 -- from $6.9 million to $5 million, its share of lottery funds increased tenfold.

See a graphic of the funding.

"That's going strictly to helping maintain the system," said Schroeder, division manager.

"But I can't replace a sidewalk that's all broken up. I can't replace a playground that needs to be replaced. Because so much more of the Conservation Trust money now has to go to just routine maintenance things, there are so many other maintenance items that are now falling by the wayside," he said.

Then why did the city keep adding to its inventory?

"We kept adding new stuff because there's demand for the services. New neighborhoods come in," Schroeder said.

"You know, the citizens of the Springs voted in favor of the (Trails, Open Space and Parks) tax, which only a very, very small portion (6 percent) can go to maintenance," he added. "Any of our new parks in the last five or so years have all been brought on with TOPS money, but TOPS has not been able to provide the maintenance dollars."

In addition, the division's budget has stayed relatively flat, especially in recent years, despite escalating costs, including a 43 percent increase in water rates this year, he said.

"At the same time, the number of park acres and the number of park sites that we have to maintain has been increasing, so we've been falling behind the curve every year," he said.

Next year is no different. In fact, it's going to be worse.

The division is poised to receive $1.8 million from the city's general-fund budget in 2010, about $3.1 million less than in 2009, and $3.9 million in lottery funds, only $143,000 more than this year.

Schroeder called the situation in 2010 "very sobering."

"Maybe up until now, the reduction in our level of service has been incremental, but every year it's been going down," he said. "It's going to take a quantum leap next year."

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Call the writer at 476-1623

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