$2.1B budget approved for city of Mesa

By Richard Dyer
Twitter: @RHDyer

A $2.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2021-22 has been approved for the city of Mesa, with one remaining piece — the secondary tax levy — to be voted on June 21 by Mesa City Council.

The 2020-21 budget was $1.9 billion.

The budget approved June 7 could not be any higher than a preliminary dollar amount approved in May. The council voted unanimously May 17 to approve a resolution on the tentative adoption of the proposed fiscal year 2021-22 budget.

“State law requires that we be very deliberate in the adoption of our budget and that we put the budget out for the public to see it and we’ll vote on it at a later date,” Mesa Mayor John Giles said during the May 17 meeting. “This is just the initial step in adopting our city budget.”

“Sometimes it’s referred to as the tentative budget,” Mesa City Attorney Jim Smith said. “It sets the cap for the final budget and so that’s sort of the mechanism or the purpose of it, and so the final budget has to be either equal or less than this particular amount and so it is required by state statute.”

The department receiving the most money in the budget, $383,285,000, is for centralized appropriations. It encompasses citywide allocations including the Highway User Revenue Fund, Mesa Arts Center restoration fee, library impact fee, public safety sales tax and funds for gas bond construction, and property and public liability, according to city records.

Other parts of the 2021-22 budget include:

• $77,757,932 for non-bond capital improvement projects;
• $209,544,068 for bond capital improvement projects; and
• $248,684,000 for capital improvement program carryover.

The 2021-22 budget lists $1.3 billion in expenditures for 31 departments such as water services, Falcon Field Airport, code compliance, and arts and culture.

Many of the city’s departments gave presentations on their requested budgets to the City Council.

“It has been a long month of department presentations,” said Brian A. Ritschel, Mesa management and budget assistant director, during a May 6 council study session. “So, just putting it all together, we came to you with a forecast and also with some capital-improvement presentations for the non-utilities and utilities, we did a budget overview and you also had the department budget presentations.”

The 2021-22 budget emphasis is on five main areas, he said. They are:

•  Investing in community growth;
•  Community safety;
• Meeting community needs and growth;
• Investing in transportation;
• Investing in transit.

2021-22 budget

Funding sources for the fiscal year 2021-22 budget include a 2% sales (transaction privilege) tax, 2% use tax, secondary property taxes, a 2% transient occupancy tax, business licenses, permits, court fees and fines, self-insurance contributions and the sale of property.

•  $383,285,000 for centralized appropriations, which covers citywide allocations. It contains citywide revenues and expenditures such as contractual commitments, debt service, lease payments, post-employment benefits, property and public liability, city sales tax, secondary property tax, urban revenue sharing, state-shared sales tax, highway user tax, utility revenues, etc. The centralized appropriations department is managed separately from any department operational plan, according to the city’s executive budget book for fiscal year 2021.
  
  
• $226,013,000 for police. The department’s highest priorities are to protect life and property, preserve the peace and uphold the rights of individuals. The department suppresses crime through patrol operations, criminal investigations, the apprehension of criminal offenders, enhanced forensic analysis, as well as crime prevention and community engagement initiatives, the budget book states.
  
  
  
• $112,574,000 for human resources. The department provides a range of HR services to approximately 4,000 city employees. The city’s medical benefits programs are self-funded and its workers compensation services are self-funded and self-administered. The HR department provides services in employee recruitment, testing and selection; benefits; compensation and classification; employee development and training; employee relations; safety and workers’ compensation.
  
  
• $115,601,000 for fire and medical services. The Mesa Fire and Medical Department is a full-service public safety organization responsible for protecting life, property and natural resources through the delivery of fire and emergency medical services. Emergency response; community outreach, such as public education, public information and social services; prevention and disaster preparedness represent the core of the program.
  
  
• $101,255,000 for water resources. The department serves a growing population of more than 496,000 in a service area of 170 square miles. As of July 2019, the water system provides service to approximately 157,000 residential and commercial connections. The wastewater system provides service to approximately 127,000 residential and commercial connections.
• $55,247,000 for parks, recreation and community facilities. The department aims to help residents enjoy Mesa to the fullest through a comprehensive park system that spans more than 2,000 acres. It includes 205 parks with unique playgrounds, nine aquatic centers, splash pads, athletic fields, a tennis center, five recreation centers, a championship golf course, a convention center, a 5,000-seat amphitheater, a cemetery, and two spring training baseball stadiums — spring training homes for the Chicago Cubs and Oakland A’s. The facilities maintenance division is responsible for providing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; electrical; plumbing; carpentry; cleaning; and structure maintenance for city facilities with in-house personnel and with outside service contracts when needed. The district cooling division is an enterprise in the enterprise fund overseen by facilities maintenance that provides cooling for many of the large downtown city buildings and is also available for commercial buildings.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.