Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the difference between the stormwater enterprise and the drainage basin fund and to clarify Mayor John Suthers’ intention during an interview Friday.

Mayor John Suthers doesn’t expect the terminated stormwater enterprise fund to be revived before the April City Council elections. But when and if it is, the city budget might not be the only beneficiary.

Developers have been racking up millions of dollars in credits in the drainage basin fund, but it doesn’t have enough to reimburse them in full.

They paid into the fund whenever they platted a piece of property. If the city estimated drainage improvements at $50,000 but the developer spent only $25,000 to do the job, he’s owed $25,000. Those who didn’t do the work paid into the fund based on their acreage.

“Developers sometimes have leftover credits from the stormwater enterprise fund. And would they recoup that money? Yes,” Suthers said Friday. “There are developers out there owed credits from the 1990s. If they’re developing again, they could be asking for the credits.”

Saturday, the mayor said he was speaking about the drainage basin fund, not the stormwater enterprise.

City Auditor Denny Nester, who called from Puerto Rico to respond to a Gazette inquiry, said the person who oversaw the fund has retired and he didn’t know who is in charge now. Chief Financial Officer Kara Skinner could not be reached Friday afternoon to advise how many dollars in credits remain.

The fund, which raised $15 million to $16 million a year before it was eliminated, probably would generate $18 million to $19 million today, the mayor said.

“When anybody says to me, ‘What would fix our budget issue?’ my answer’s the same for everybody. If we did what every other city in America does (with a stormwater fund) … that would solve the problem.”

But, Suthers said, “I would be shocked if the City Council had the appetite to do it before the election, and I wouldn’t blame ’em.”

Six district council members will be elected in April, and five incumbents – all except Keith King – will seek re-election.

“I think the conversation will continue,” the mayor said. “It’s a genuine fee, and as long as it all went to stormwater, it doesn’t violate Issue 300.”

Voters passed that ballot issue in 2009 by a 55 percent majority. It barred payments to the city from the enterprises it owns, such as golf courses, cemeteries and parking garages.

But Issue 300 was an initiated ordinance that amended the city code, not the charter, which allows payments in lieu of taxes and trumps the city code.

Nonetheless, the then-council voted 5-4 to eliminate the SWENT. So this April, Suthers and the current council signed an agreement with Pueblo County to provide $460 million in stormwater projects by 2035.

The county was holding hostage the 1041 permit needed by Colorado Springs Utilities to complete its $825 million Southern Delivery System – a project decades in the making and scheduled to start pumping water to four jurisdictions two days after Pueblo County accepted the stormwater pact.