During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston responded to a question on Denver residents who are frustrated that the city is cutting services due to budget shortfalls caused by the influx of migrants in the city by stating that “The dilemma is when you have values on both sides and you have to manage those values. We have a value of being a welcoming, compassionate city.” And there are some cuts to migrant services.
Johnston said, “We’ve asked every agency in the city to take a look at what they could do to make what is about a 15% cut to their budget across the city. And those agencies are all presenting options to us this week. We started the first set of actions this week, which includes reducing the hours in our rec centers, closing rec centers for some days, and will involve closing some of our DMV sites on certain days and weeks. And so, we are having to make some of these hard decisions, and we’ll also have to reduce some of the level and length of services we can provide to migrants. We’ve had more than 40,000 migrants arrive in our city over the last year, more than any other city in America per capita, and we have very successfully integrated them. To do that well just requires resources, and it will be impossible for us to do that at this scale going forward without any federal help.”
In another part of the interview, co-host Michel Martin asked, “Denver is a very diverse city, and it’s understood to be a progressive city. But I can imagine that there are some people who are not pleased at the idea that their services are being curtailed to take care of other people with whom they may or may not have any connection. What do you say to them?”
Johnston responded, “The dilemma is when you have values on both sides and you have to manage those values. We have a value of being a welcoming, compassionate city. And we do not want to be a city where women and children are out on the streets in 10-degree weather in tents. That’s not part of our value system. And we also want to be a city that provides high-quality services to all of our residents. So, without federal action, we’re left to just manage that on our own. But it’s not as simple as either you just stop supporting them altogether or you cut all the city budgets. What we’re going to do is both.”
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