2025 EPH budget due for adoption Wednesday night

UPDATE: Estes Park Health changed the time of the meeting from 5:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m on Wednesday evening.

While final data has not been released, it is assumed that the 2025 budget for the Park Hospital District will be approved Wednesday during a meeting of the Estes Park Health board of directors.

The district must submit its 2025 budget to the state no later than Dec. 15. As of Monday, Dec. 9, no agenda for the Wednesday meeting had been posted.

According to an Oct. 16 published notification entitled “notice of proposed budget and public hearing” the final adoption of the budget is to occur during the 5:30 p.m. meeting on Dec. 11 at Town Hall. However, the published notice did not provide a date for a public hearing on the budget. The notice did say the budget would be reviewed on Nov. 13, but the topic was not discussed during that meeting. State budget law requires that a public hearing be conducted (CRS 129-1-106 (1) (a).

A draft budget released in October shows operating expenses exceeding operating income by more than $4.1 million. Much of that deficit could be recaptured through nonoperating revenues – property tax revenues, interest expense, investment income (loss), gain (loss) on disposal of capital assets, noncapital grants and contributions, and other.

Given that EPH did not include documentation with the draft budget, what creates a 2025 projected $545,828 loss in interest expense, or what constitutes a $202,522 loss in “other” is unknown.

State budget law (CRS 29-1-103(1) (d)) says the budget document must include “corresponding actual figures for the last completed fiscal year and the estimated figures projected through the end of the current fiscal year, and an explanatory schedule.”

Not included in the draft budget is a projected $200,000 contribution from the Estes Park Health Foundation’s diagnostic imaging center fundraising campaign that kicks off in May. Also not included is the $250,000 earmarked for the project from EPH funds through a resolution passed by the board on Dec. 3.

The EPH board meeting will be held in the Town Hall boardroom, 170 MacGregor Ave., at 4:30 p.m. The public can attend in person. Individuals wanting to attend on-line are required to register and provide their name and email address.