Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper made a rare appearance at Monday's City Council meeting to pitch his infrastructure bond package.

After making a few language changes, the council voted on first reading to place the eight questions on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The council also scheduled a one-hour public hearing for Aug. 13, which is when the proposal is up for a final vote.

The proposal calls for two property tax increases.

One is a 2.5 mill levy bump that would generate $27 million annually to pay for ongoing maintenance of the city's aging assets such as streets and park irrigation systems.

The other is a 20-year, $550 million bond issue to pay for deferred maintenance, "critical" projects and new buildings.

The mill levy is one question and the $550 million worth of projects make up the other seven.

Those seven are separated by category, such as libraries, parks and recreation centers, and cultural facilities.

Concerns have been raised that voters will reject some projects in the $550 million bond package to avoid exceeding the city's bonding capacity of $480 million. Any debt over that amount would trigger a tax increase.

Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz cast the lone dissenting vote on two of the questions: the proposed mill levy and the $70 million proposal - last question on the ballot - to renovate Boettcher Concert Hall and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

"This is a forever tax increase," Faatz said about the mill levy.

Faatz said she could support $480 million worth of projects but not the $70 million allocation for the cultural facilities because it would trigger the tax increase.

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099