Pueblo City Council President

Proposes Firing Full-Time City Employees While Shielding $79 Million Police & Fire Budget

PUEBLO, CO - A recently recorded video of Pueblo City Council President Mark Aliff reveals a desire to open negotiations with city unions that would allow the City of Pueblo to terminate full-time general service employees and replace them with part-time workers - a move framed as a solution to the city's current $8–10 million budget deficit.

Who Are These Employees?

Pueblo's general service employees are represented by the Pueblo Association of Government Employees (PAGE), whose collective bargaining agreement covers workers across 10 to 12 city departments - the people who maintain infrastructure, process permits, manage parks, handle public records, and deliver the everyday services Pueblo residents rely on. They are not one department. They are the operational backbone of city government.

The Math the Council President Isn't Talking About

The City of Pueblo has asked all departments to cut their budgets by 15%. On the surface, that sounds equal. It is not.

Consider what a 15% cut actually means across the city's workforce:

The police department budget: $43,600,000+/-. General service employees represent approximately 1% of that budget. A 15% cut to the police budget has a very limited impact on police operations.

The fire department budget: $29,800,000+/-. General service employees represent approximately 11% of that budget. Where do you think that 15% cut is going to be?

Combined, police and fire consume 72% of the city's entire general fund - $73,400,000+/- and neither department has been identified for meaningful reduction.

Meanwhile, PAGE-represented employees - spread across more than ten departments, making up a fraction of the city's total payroll - are being, or will be soon, asked to sacrifice full-time positions entirely.

A flat 15% cut demand is not equal sacrifice when one group holds 72% of the budget and another holds a fraction of it. The burden of "shared sacrifice" is falling almost entirely on the employees who can least afford it and who had no role in creating the deficit.

Workers Who Didn't Create the Problem

Pueblo's general service employees did not cause this budget shortfall. Yet under the council president's proposal, they would bear the cost of closing it - through layoffs and replacement of stable, full-time union positions with part-time work that typically carries reduced or no benefits. Eliminating a significant portion of the general service workforce would bring the city close to a balanced budget, while gutting the services those employees provide every day.

A Tax Solution Was Sabotaged - Then Dismissed

In November 2025, a 1% sales tax ballot measure - which would have resolved the city's budget deficit without a single layoff or position freeze - was voted down by nearly 80% of voters. What that vote total doesn't reflect is why it failed.

Rather than making an honest case for or against the measure, several city council members actively campaigned against it by mischaracterizing it as a "food tax" - a claim that was misleading and, according to many observers, deliberately so. Voters rejected a measure they were told was something it wasn't.

Council President Aliff has pointed to this vote as justification for his opposition to any tax increase. He has also argued that city revenue has increased nearly $45 million over the last 50 years - as though that figure alone demonstrates the city has adequate resources.

What that argument ignores is the cost of supplies, materials, utilities, personnel, and every other expense required to operate a city has increased dramatically over the same 50 years - far outpacing that $45 million in revenue growth. Citing revenue growth without accounting for cost growth isn't fiscal conservatism. It's an incomplete picture being used to justify a predetermined conclusion.

The result is a budget crisis being solved on the backs of general service employees - while the people responsible for blocking a legitimate revenue solution face no consequences at all.

The Message Being Sent to Pueblo's City Workers

This proposal sends an unmistakable message to the men and women of PAGE: you are expendable. Your jobs, your benefits, and your families' financial security are on the table. The city's largest and most protected budget commitments are not.

Pueblo residents deserve a full and honest public debate about how their city's money is spent - and who is actually being asked to pay the price.

Unjust local encourages all Pueblo residents to watch this video, provided by the PAGE union, and contact their city council representatives directly. The full video can be found here.