Vail Town Council set to review proposed budget for 2025 that nears $160 million
Massive Dobson Ice Arena remodel amounts to roughly 31% of the town's total budget
Zach Mahone/Courtesy photo
The Vail Town Council on Tuesday will discuss the town’s proposed budget for 2025, a $158.5 million spending plan that includes the massive Dobson Ice Arena remodel.
In a draft budget proposal published Friday, Town Manager Russ Forrest is projecting revenues of $132.8 million for the year, which he said, “reflects conservative revenue projections, an observed decrease in the rate of price inflation, and a continued normalization in visitation.”
The $132.8 million projection is a 3.6% decrease from the 2024 forecast and a 1.6% decrease from the revenues earned in 2023, Forrest said.
The deficit in revenue versus spending will be paid out through the town’s reserves, Forrest said, which have been better than expected in recent years due to conservative spending and the deferral of capital projects. At the end of 2023, the town had $173.9 million in reserves.
“During 2024, the town is projected to spend reserves down by $87.8 million, largely due to the cash funding of the Timber Ridge housing project, the Booth Heights acquisition, and other large one-time capital projects,” Forrest said. “Into 2025, the town is projected to use additional reserves towards W. Middle Creek ($10.0M), community housing buy-downs ($2.3M), the Dobson Ice Arena renovation ($20.9M) with the remainder expected to be funded with the use of financing, and other one-time capital improvements.”
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By the end of 2025, the town’s general fund reserves are projected to be $33.4 million, Forrest said, and with the town’s capital projects fund reserves and real estate transfer tax fund reserves, the total town-wide reserves are projected to be $55.8 million at the end of 2025.
One of the biggest line items on the 2025 budget will be the Dobson Ice Arena remodel, a project that’s estimated to cost $50.4 million. That amounts to roughly 31% of the town’s total budget.
Municipal services will account for 46.8% of the budget, other capital improvements amount to 19.9% of the budget, and debt service makes up the remainder at an estimated 1.5%.
Year-round focus for events
The town will try a new events tactic for 2025, transitioning its Discover Vail brand and the Vail Local Marketing District into a single, year-round destination marketing organization.
“The special event funding process is proposed to be managed by the Vail Local Marketing District for 2025,” Forrest said.
The town’s marketing fund will no longer directly record the expenditures related to special event funding, instead transferring its event funding expenditure to the Vail Local Marketing District.
“This transfer will be funded by the business license fees collected by the marketing fund, with the remaining amount funded from general fund reserves,” Forrest said.
For 2025, the total transfer to the Vail Local Marketing District is proposed to be $2.63 million. Of that, $332,500 will be funded by the business license fees collected by the town’s marketing fund, and $127,700 will be funded by the current fund balance in the marketing fund.
Another $2.52 million is proposed to be funded by the general fund.
Raises and new hires
Vail considers investment in its workforce to be its top priority for 2025, with just over 350 full-time equivalent workers employed by the town.
Forrest is proposing a 6.4% increase in workforce expenditures in 2025, which includes raises and the addition of 3.6 full-time equivalent positions.
“As employee turnover rates have increased, the need to focus on employee recruitment and retention as well as succession planning has become essential across the entire organization,” Forrest said. “The town’s employees are a critical part of the town’s infrastructure and provide world-class services to the community and guests.”
In 2025, Forrest is proposing the addition of a firefighter, a transit supervisor and a part-time graphic designer. There are also two new positions that the town intended to implement in 2024 but did not fill — an internal employee housing specialist and a short-term rental fire inspector.
“Additionally, the town has budgeted an overall 5% increase in wage adjustments for current staff, which allows for a combination of 1% to 5% merit increases and other rate adjustments to provide competitive pay,” Forrest said.
The Vail Town Council is scheduled to review the budget on Tuesday at its afternoon meeting, which is set to begin at noon.
