Former Chandler mayor and 2025 bond exploratory committee chair Jay Tibshraeny looks toward the audience during the City Council’s Feb. 20 meeting. The committee recommended the council take a $475 million general obligation bond to voters, most likely in a November 2025 election.
In November of last year, voters turned down a continuation of property taxes that would have given the Chandler Unified School District $487 million to spend on facilities and other items.
In November of this year, the city of Chandler is about to ask many of the same voters for nearly the same amount of property tax money with a similar extension — albeit for different types of projects and spending, in a different set of circumstances.
The city’s Resident Bond Exploratory Committee, chaired by former mayor Jay Tibshraeny, presented its final recommendations at the Feb. 20 Chandler City Council meeting for a $475 million general obligation bond. Bond questions could be voted upon by city residents in November of this year.
Tibshraeny and the city’s chief Financial officer, Dawn Lang, made the presentation to the council, pointing out frequently how much was cut out by the committee, mostly postponing large, expensive projects or phases.
The council will address the recommended package to take to voters at an April 13 work session and make what are likely to be small adjustments. Then, the council will likely take the steps necessary to put the bond on the November ballot to see if it gets the majority approval it requires.
“Bonds fund almost 70% of Chandler’s 10-year capital improvement program,” Tibshraeny said among the many observations in an executive summary he quoted from, in addressing council.
Courtesy of City of Chandler
City staff says inflation is a big reason why its spending authority from a $273 million bond approved by voters in November 2021. Lang added that even though the city recently raised some development fees, the city isn’t getting “growth to pay for growth” the way it did in its fastest-expanding years.
The city now needs higher bond amounts to pay for replacements or maintenance of projects that were once funded or even built by developers.
“Bonds are now a more important source of revenue we use to pay for maintaining our aging infrastructure,” Lang said.
The 31-resident committee recommended a package that includes requests for fire, police, streets and parks and recreation totaling $475 million. The recommendations include $183 million for streets, $158 million for improvements to parks and recreation facilities, $88 million for fire equipment and facilities and $46 million for police equipment and facilities.
The biggest leap among those four categories from the 2021 bond would be fire; the city only asked voters for a $25.16 million bond that year for fire department-related facilities and equipment.
In addition to those four categories, the 2021 bond had a fifth “city buildings” $33.57 million bond for quality-of-life and city facilities such as libraries. That category isn’t even mentioned in the new proposal.
The 2021 bond, asked in the form of five separate “Shall the city sell bonds for ... ” -type questions, all were overwhelmingly approved by voters. The quality-of-life and other buildings question received the lowest approval vote, with about 66% in favor.
Chandler residents also approved $121 million bond questions in 2000 and a $451 million bond package in 2007.
The 2025 recommended package calls for no increases in primary or secondary property taxes “using current projections.”
The report states the committee conducted an “extensive review and prioritization process that began in September” and held several public meetings.
Read more about the committee’s recommendations in this executive summary found at the bottom of this webpage.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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