Surprise City Council passes $415.5 million budget
Officials want flexibility if economy improves fast
Keeping an eye on an uncertain financial situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Surprise City Council approved a “flat” budget June 2 — while adding some flexibility in case things get better faster than expected.
The council unanimously passed a $415.5 million budget for fiscal year 2021, which was up a little less than $3 million from last year’s.
“We tried to stay as flat as we possibly could,” assistant finance director Holly Osborn told the City Council.
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Keeping an eye on an uncertain financial situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Surprise City Council approved a “flat” budget June 2 — while adding some flexibility in case things get better faster than expected.
The council unanimously passed a $415.5 million budget for fiscal year 2021, which was up a little less than $3 million from last year’s.
“We tried to stay as flat as we possibly could,” assistant finance director Holly Osborn told the City Council.
The final budget was $13.5 million less than the tentative budget the council passed in May.
“The budget is designed to be mindful of the current state of the economy while providing flexibility for the future,” Ms. Osborn said.
Budget officials added to the contingency fund — an increase of$5.2 million from the tentative budget — for a total of $74.3 million.
“That’s really the mechanism that’s going to provide us the flexibility should we see stronger revenues or a greater rebound,” Ms. Osborn said.
The city is bracing for still unknown sales tax revenue loss of nearly two months of business shutdowns in Surprise.
Ms. Osborn said the city has eliminated expenses across the board to help out the contingency fund, as well as cutting some projects and reducing asset replacement.
“Transfers and contingency are the trickiest part of the budget,” Ms. Osborn told the council.
The 2021 budget includes transfers of $40.2 million. That’s simply money that’s moved between accounts.
“The revenues and expenses are already included in our expenditure limit, but say we move money from the general capital fund to an asset replacement fund, we’re pushing money out of one fund and putting it into another fund,” Ms. Osborn said.
The budget for 2021 includes $99.1 million set aside for Capital Improvement Projects. The voter approved bond projects from 2017 that are online include Greenway Road improvements and the construction of Fire Station 308 and the Public Safety Evidence and Readiness Center.
Because of the hiring freeze of non-essential workers in the city, only three new full-time employees in Water Resource Management and a full-timer and a part-timer for fleet operations within the Public Works department were part of the budget.
The full Surprise budget is at surpriseaz.gov/budget.
Property taxes
In other news for residents, the council voted June 2 to keep the primary and secondary rates the same for the ninth straight year.
The primary rate remains at $0.7591 per $100 of assessed valuation, while the secondary one sits at $0.3880 per $100 of assessed valuation.
“Every other city in Maricopa County has raised the rate except for us,” Mayor Skip Hall said to start the discussion on it.
The vote for final approval on the rates comes at the next meeting Tuesday, July 16.
The City Council also approved a tax levy for its 115 Street Light Improvement Districts. The council approved a rate up to the maximum of $1.20 for each $100 of assessed valuation.
More than 20,000 street lights are under a SLID in the city, officials said. In more affluent communities, HOAs include the streetlight assessment in their HOA dues.
Meet Jason Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.
Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley's original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.
Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.
Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.
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