Chandler’s budget will still have many capital needs in ‘28

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

When the Chandler City Council wrapped its budget work sessions, briefings and votes in the spring, ahead of the July 1 start of fiscal 2027, there was a lot of spending to recap.

While it isn’t quite clear exactly how large or vast the fiscal 2028 budget will be yet, it’s already clear there will be some differences and similarities with FY27.

Budget Director Matt Dunbar led an Oct. 12 work session that kicked off the cycle of meetings for the FY28 budget, for the year that runs from July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028.

While the city won’t have some needs in 2028 that it has this fiscal year, such as some startup costs for its new ambulance service, or a few major capital project dollar figures, it will have more capital spending and more tough decisions to make before June.

Dunbar said one predictable change is that with changes in how state sales tax revenue flows down to municipalities, Chandler was down to 73% of its transaction privilege tax, or state sales tax, revenues being ongoing, relative to one-time funds, as recently as fiscal 2024.

That ongoing number is up to 89% for the adopted FY27 budget, Dunbar said, with 91% forecast for FY28 and 95% ongoing forecast by fiscal 2031.

“We’re going to take a close look at that as we go through this next fiscal year,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar said receipts from construction permits and temporarily local construction crews working on Intel’s two newest fabs in south Chandler are also dwindling, in terms of nearly all of that spike in revenue having been accounted for.

The city’s budget remained close to $1.629 billion in both FY25 and FY26 before ballooning to about $1.868 billion for fiscal 2027.

An initially discussed plan for FY27 property taxes focused on the city raising some revenue by keeping its primary property tax rate steady, which would have forced the city to start a state-mandated Truth in Taxation hearing process.

But Chandler Mayor Kevin Hartke and the council later directed finance staff that the city plans to reduce its primary property tax rate to $1.0759 per $100 of assessed property valuation for the year, costing the city an estimated $253,000 but also allowing leadership to brag about reducing a property tax rate for the 11th consecutive year.

Property taxes account for at least $9 million in annual city revenue, City Manager John Pombier added.

The city will send out a budget survey this month or in early November and departments will make their budget requests to city leaders in early January. Then, it’s off to a handful of work sessions, a retreat and an all-day budget briefing in the spring.

Council member and mayor-elect Matt Orlando said once interest rates can stabilize or come down in order to stimulate construction, he’ll want input from staff on what he and the council can do to “help get sticks in the ground” in getting more construction projects started.

Some items Pombier discussed as needing to do, or, at council direction, choosing to do during the FY27 process were:

-Converting some one-time funded positions to permanent/ongoing.

-Hiring dozens of new positions as Chandler Fire begins to start ambulance service Jan. 1, 2027.

-Identified positions with a revenue or expenditure offset, i.e. creating new positions that will help the city make or save money.

-Increased capital budgets to compensate for inflation-affected projects, maintain aging infrastructure and/or finished long-planned parks, fiber and arterial streets.

Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org.  Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to azopinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA

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.

Community: He supports animal shelters.