DENVER – As Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston continues to navigate the city’s multi-million dollar budget shortfall, members of Denver’s STAR Community Advisory Committee worry the mayor will cut nearly $1 million from the STAR Program’s budget.
STAR, which stands for Support Team Assisted Response, is the city’s acclaimed program that serves as an alternative to policing, sending mental health clinicians and paramedics to low-risk dispatch calls.
The program has served as a model for other cities across the country.
But now, Vinnie Cervantes, a STAR Community Advisory Committee member who helped create the program said he’s worried this budget cut will cost lives.
“We don't know where exactly they plan for those cuts to come from for STAR, but what we do know is that STAR is only answering about 50% of the calls that it could right now, so it's not even at capacity as it is. It's not a 24/7 program. We know that the STAR Program is already overloaded with calls. So a cut like that, I mean, eliminating well over 10% of the budget is actually it would do devastating harm to the program and the people who need it,” Cervantes said.
According to the Caring for Denver Foundation, STAR's budget for 2024-2025 was about $6 million.
Cervantes said city leaders have not confirmed or denied the cuts to the committee.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s office didn’t respond to Denver7’s request for comment on this possible budget cut at the time of this report.
However, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment said:
“The 2026 budget has not been finalized yet. The Mayor will deliver the budget on Sept. 15, and more information will be available then.”
“Other cities across the country have been able to fund their program at much higher rates, smaller cities than Denver, and we are still at a point where we're not even close to full funding for STAR,” Cervantes said. “People love the STAR program. Our city leaders have praised it. We've had people up from other cities, visit and look at the program. We haven't seen the action behind it to give the support that it needs.”
Cervantes said STAR should not be facing a budget cut, and instead city leader should work to fully fund the program.
“So we had our meeting last night with Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, who oversees the STAR program. We did make them aware that we were aware of the rumor that this was cut. This cut was coming. You know, they didn't react with any kind of ...they just said they couldn't talk about it, at least until the budget goes before Council,” Cervantes said. “At this five-year proclamation, we had a community member say that every single STAR call is a life possibly saved. And so that is a huge consequence of the City and County of Denver, the people who live here, the people who need help.”
Cervantes said he understands city leaders have to make tough funding decisions right now.
“If I could speak to the mayor, I would acknowledge that this budget shortfall that we're in right now is a result of several mayoral administrations that have made mistakes, that have misspent money, that have misplaced priorities for the City and County of Denver, but his administration is not, not absolved from any of that — his administration is very much to blame for where we are,” Cervantes said.
“It really hurts that the city has kind of taken control of this program and this idea in a way that has drifted from the original values and why it was created and why it's necessary.”
Cervantes said it is time for the city to make STAR a priority by maintaining or even increasing it’s funding.
