Administration raids the Special Revenue Fund for spending outside of its scope

October 20, 2025

What Happened

The Transportation and Mobility Special Revenue Fund was created in 2022 as a way to use increased revenue from parking meters to fund "an estimated $9.5 million in new money for bike infrastructure, sidewalk repair and transit projects" according to reports at the time.

In October of 2025 DOTI said it would "be using a portion of the SRF's 2026 fund balance to create a new online parking citation review program to replace the magistrate program that was managed by Denver County Court"

This is a misuse of those funds and an insult to the transportation budget which has already been cut thin.

What Should Have Been Done

Leave the Special Revenue Fund for its intended purpose which was to fund bike infrastructure, sidewalk repair and pedestrian improvements, and transit projects.

Denver also needs to increase the cost of our parking meters in line with best practices and peer cities. It is incredibly cheap to park at a Denver meter and this does not help the availability of a limited resource when people can occupy them for long durations at minimal cost.

---
title: "Administration raids the  Special Revenue Fund for spending outside of its scope"
date: 2025-10-20
category: budget
sources:
  - url: "https://www.9news.com/article/money/consumer/steve-on-your-side/denver-parking-ticket-dispute-budget-cuts/73-ed8efd77-a66f-447d-9eef-d44fbf5ce539"
    title: "Denver launches new parking ticket dispute process after budget cuts eliminate old system"
  - url: "https://www.denverpost.com/2021/12/30/denver-parking-meter-rates-2-in-2022/"
    title: "Downtown Denver businesses, patrons brace for doubled parking meter rates"
  - url: "https://www.denverpost.com/2021/09/15/denver-2022-budget-proposal-hancock-covid/"
    title: "Denver’s 2022 budget to get a boost from more expensive parking, rebounding sales tax"
alternativeSources:
  - url: "https://parkade.com/post/donald-shoup-the-high-cost-of-free-parking-summarized#"
    title: "A cheat sheet on Professor Donald Shoup's groundbreaking work"
  - url: "https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/parking-under-pressure-why-3-cities-price-spots-based-on-demand/699726/"
    title: "Parking under pressure: Why 3 cities raised prices on the best spots"
---

## What Happened

This is a misuse of those funds and an insult to the transportation budget which has already been cut thin.

## What Should Have Been Done

Leave the Special Revenue Fund for its intended purpose which was to fund bike infrastructure, sidewalk repair and pedestrian improvements, and transit projects.