Queen Creek retires Town Center fund, transfers almost $10M

Almost a year ago, shoppers in Queen Creek stopped paying a special sales tax for purchases made in Town Center.

Now, $9.6 million sitting in the Town Center Fund is being transferred to the general fund. The fund includes $9 million in remaining property sales proceeds and $600,000 in remaining sales tax proceeds.

Council approved moving the Town Center funds to the general fund during its Sept. 17 meeting as part of its consent agenda in which all items are decided through one motion and vote. The vote was 4-0. Council Members Dawn Oliphant and Travis Padilla were absent from the meeting and Mayor Julia Wheatley is on leave until late fall.

In approving the transfer, the council also authorized moving $210,000 of expense authority from the Town Center Fund to the general fund.

“The Town Center Fund was required as a special revenue fund under accounting rules because the tax levied was for a specific purpose. With the purpose complete and the tax repealed, there is no requirement to continue the Town Center Fund,” a staff report stated.

In June 2024, the Queen Creek Town Council repealed the 0.25% sales tax within the Town Center areas of Queen Creek Marketplace, QC District and Cornerstone at Queen Creek, effective Oct. 1, 2024.

The tax was put in place in 2007 to pay for initial infrastructure development of the Town Center area, as well as the Ellsworth Road realignment project that created Ellsworth Loop Road.

Along with paying for major infrastructure projects such as the realignment of Ellsworth and the construction of Ellsworth Loop Road, the Town Center sales tax helped Queen Creek reinvest in older areas with the Downtown Core through a “façade improvement program … repairs and maintenance of town-owned buildings in the Town Center, purchase of property for future resale to development, design of drainage improvements, and other infrastructure-related expenses,” according to a staff report.

Starting this fiscal year, Town Center land sales will be recorded in the general fund.

The council was able to schedule the sunsetting of the Town Center tax after making the last payment on the debt for construction of Ellsworth Loop Road.

The sales tax on purchases from Town Center areas is no 2.25%, down from 2.50%.

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