Gilbert Town Council studies proposed $1.67B budget
Posted
Tom Blodgett
Gilbert’s budget could pass $1 billion for the second time in town history.
Officials presented a $1.67 billion fiscal year 2022-23 budget to Gilbert Town Council at an April 26 study session before the council’s regular business meeting.
That represents an increase of $682.59 million, or 69.07%, from this year’s $988.25 million budget.
However, all is not what it seems on the surface of a Gilbert budget. The majority of the budget and almost all of the increase is in capital improvement projects, in which Gilbert includes all of the future money to be spent in coming years on projects that are under way during the fiscal year.
“We won’t spend all of that money in next year’s budget,” Budget Director Kelly Pfost said. “As always, we budget the full amount so that we know that we can complete the projects, but it will take us several years to work through those projects to the completion through the design and construction.”
The total capital projects budget alone for fiscal year 2022-23 is $1.05 billion, about the same as the whole budget for FY 2019-20, the only other time Gilbert crossed the $1 billion threshold.
Council considered whether some capital projects should be removed, including a Hunt Highway improvements project that is projected to cost $83.06 million but is scheduled for 10 or more years out.
However, Pfost said those monies are not in the budget, and some members noted it is used as a placeholder as a future possibility. Peterson invited council members to tag some of the projects for further review.
Similarly, Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes noted money projected for a crime lab, forecasted for fiscal year 2026-27 but which has not yet been approved by council. That money also is not included in the next fiscal year's budget.
“If we’re going to indicate the level of investment that this shows on paper and then communicate that on public documents to our constituents, this begs the question who is driving policy decisions,” she said. “I guess that’s my frustration with this. I understand this is a placeholder, but none of the [council level] vetting has occurred that would determine this is even in the ballpark range, or have we decided at kind of a staff level that is what assume is going to happen.”
Town Manager Patrick Banger said the only things formally approved are those projects that are in the next fiscal year, and the five-year projections are only just projections that could change.
In the end, council directed staff to include such projects in the town’s capital projects plan without including the five-year projections so as not to mislead the public that they had been approved.
All of Gilbert’s other funds together—including the general fund, enterprise funds, streets, internal services, replacement funds, special revenue and debt servic—total $620.34 million, an increase of $57.49 million.
The largest of those, the general fund, is growing from $223.61 million to $244.35 million. The town uses the previous year’s revenues with a forecast of zero growth to set the general fund budget.
The second-highest increase in the other funds is $14.47 million for debt service based on new general obligation bonds for streets, transportation and infrastructure as well as new water resource bonds, which were approved at the council’s business meeting April 26 to help pay for the North Water Treatment Plant renovation and expansion.
The property tax levy is $29.6 million, an increase of $1.85 million, but the property tax rate remains at $0.99 per $100 assessed valuation.
The budget will be up before council for preliminary adoption May 17 and final adoption June 14.
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