On Tuesday, Colorado Springs City Council passed the city's 2025 budget. The General Fund budget is $438 million, which is about a 2% increase from the 2024 budget.I'm grateful to the City Council for their hard work and dedication in passing the 2025 City budget, said Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade. The budget reflects months of collaboration, feedback, and careful planning, all aimed at ensuring that our city continues to thrive while addressing the most pressing needs of our residents including public safety, city cleanup, and issues surrounding homelessness.While the City of Colorado Springs expects sales tax revenue to increase 3.5% in 2025, it's not expected to cover the costs of providing key services to the community. The city says they will continue to cap its 2025 property tax rate, which aims to give relief to the community from increased property taxes.The City of Colorado Springs provided the following highlights regarding the budget: addition of 20 police officers to grow authorized strength and keep pace with the citys growth addition of three police department civilian positions in the areas of photo enforcement, training academy support, and the body-worn camera program continued funding for replacement of police department emergency vehicles and fire department apparatus continued funding for the Homeless Outreach Program (HOP) in the fire department, which provides resources and navigation for access to healthcare, housing, mental and behavioral health resources.  continued funding for the police departments Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) compensation increases of 2% for all police and fire sworn employees, and an average of 2% pay for performance increase for civilian employees additional Quality of Life Team in the Neighborhood Services Division, added by reallocating vacant positions and associated funding from other areas of the organization maintenance technician in Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services to address neighborhood parks, including the new Grey Hawk Park transfer four vacant positions to housing services, replacing positions that were previously grant funded continued funding of $500,000 for shelter bed operations for people experiencing homelessness transfer the Neighborhood Services division to Public Works Operations and Maintenance to increase efficiencies of equipment use and work assignmentTo view the budget, visit the City of Colorado Springs website._______Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.