Queen Creek council approves tentative $682M budget

The Queen Creek Town Council unanimously voted Wednesday for a tentative budget of $682.7 million for the upcoming fiscal year, but the final budget may be lower.

The recommended budget is 6% lower than the $723.8 million budget for the current fiscal year. It also marks the second consecutive year the budget has shrunk. In the 2023-24 fiscal year the town’s budget was $867.1 million.

When the final budget goes before the council on May 21, it may be $55 million dollars less than the initial vote.

Queen Creek Chief Financial Officer Scott McCarty informed council the town would be able to execute this fiscal year the $40 million Harquahala water purchase, as well as the almost $15 million purchase of park land council approved earlier in the meeting.

“We’re definitely going to take that out, so again, you’re not voting on the $627.7 million tonight but we’re asking you to approve the tentative at $682.7,” McCarty said. “We’re likely to bring back a final budget that’s $627.7 million, so $55 million lower than the tentative budget.”

The new fiscal year starts on July 1.

Taking a substantial cut this budget is parks and recreation, as the 2025-26 budget will not include big-ticket items such as new parks.

With the Mansel Carter Oasis Park expansion and the building of Frontier Family Park — including the new recreation and aquatic center — almost finished at the time, the infrastructure budget for parks fell to $73.3 million in the current fiscal year from $170.9 million in 2024-24.

“The (2025-26) budget includes $26.8 million to purchase land for future parks, building out the town’s trails system and closing out final costs for the Recreation & Aquatic Center,” the budget report stated.

Under the tentative budget, spending on transportation infrastructure dropped $54.4 million to a proposed $119.1 million next year.

McCarty previously told council the lower transportation spending does not reflect “that it’s a lower priority for the council. It just means that there is a different list of projects that we’re doing next year than we did this year.”

The budget report also stated that the town “has been successful in securing commitments from regional partners toward these infrastructure needs to help defray the costs of certain major projects. Pinal County, Maricopa County and the flood control district have committed millions of dollars toward road, drainage and utility projects.”

Overall infrastructure costs comprise 52% of the proposed budget, or $355.6 million. The infrastructure budget includes:

• Transportation- $119.1 million
• Water - $68.8 million
• Police - $55.3 million
• Water resources - $40 million
• Parks – $26.8 million
• Wastewater - $17.2 million
• Fire - $11.5 million

While the vote was unanimous, Council Member Travis Padilla aired concerns about park maintenance, the debt financing the town’s infrastructure and routing more money to transportation.

He said more than $300 million has been spent on parks in recent years and that doesn’t include operational costs.

“What I want our residents to be aware of is how much we’re spending on an ongoing basis for our ongoing annual maintenance fees. And what I’ve seen in the last 10 years is the numbers show that we’ve spent almost $62 million in the last 10 years on operations and maintenance and what’s alarming to me about these numbers is that this has increased from 2020,” Padilla said. “We were spending approximately $3.6 million annually on maintenance for parks. We are now next year going to be spending annually $15 million on parks.”

He added every dollar spent on parks was not being spent on transportation and paying down the debt.

The town’s spending on parks have been a major factor in Padilla voting against every final budget since he joined the council in 2022.

The Queen Creek Police Department will have a $1 million increase in infrastructure costs as the town seeks to accommodate the growing force.

The department is getting a new headquarters and a parking structure, and the former Barney Family Sports Complex is being overhauled into a public safety complex to support QCPD and the Queen Creek Fire & Medical Department.

The $69.5 million joint facility is expected to be finished at the end of this year, with the $59.6 million headquarters and parking structure set for completion in 2028. Both will be paid out of $75 million in bonds sold in December, plus another $75 million bond issuance set for 2026. The bonds also will be used to pay for new roads and other infrastructure.

Debt will be paid through impact and capacity fees, the operating budget, the 2% sales tax dedicated to transportation, and water and wastewater rates.

In terms of personnel, the proposed budget calls for about 15 new positions in the Queen Creek Police Department and two for the Queen Creek Fire & Medical Department, plus another 20 new positions throughout the town government.

Four positions will go toward a new town attorney’s office as part of the council’s goal to move contracted legal services in-house.

Under the proposed budget, town employees will see a modest increase in compensation and a “3% increase in medical premiums, which the town is absorbing, and no increase in medical premiums for town employees,” the report stated.

The budget includes the full reduction of the 0.25% Town Center sales tax repealed by the council last year and it also continues to freeze on property taxes for the third year in a row.

“It’s really unheard of to see a government body have a lower budget than what they did the year before. It’s really unheard of especially in a high-growth area like Queen Creek,” Mayor Julia Wheatley said. “With a tentative budget of 6% less than last year’s budget — potentially even more based on what we discussed — and despite the continued growth in the community, it’s tremendous.”

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