The Town Council got its first look at the projected budget numbers for the 2023/2024 Fiscal Year when it held its annual retreat on Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Finance Director David Pock presented a plan that totals $33,033,100 in base expenditures over all funds. This includes $19.2 million in General Fund expenditures.

Pock had revenue forecasts totaling $42.3 million for the next fiscal year. All of these numbers are reductions over the current fiscal year. Pock said he is taking an especially conservative approach in his budget forecasts for the coming year due to economic uncertainties.

Contract services account for nearly $10.4 million of the General Fund budget. This includes the public safety agreements with Maricopa County Sheriffs Office for law enforcement and Rural/Metro Corp. for fire and emergency medical.

Although a transfer of the Rural/Metro agreement to an in-house fire department is expected at the middle of the upcoming fiscal year, it is not expected to have an impact on the balance of the numbers.

Payroll and benefits are in the budget for $5,756,100, which is unchanged from the budget for the current fiscal year.

The projected Streets Fund expenses total $5.9 million. This includes $4 million for maintenance and repair and $653,400 for payroll and benefits.

General Fund revenue forecasts include $13 million in local Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) or sales taxes and about $9 million in state shared revenues. Total income for the General Fund is projected at $23.6 million.

Since FY 21 the Town has received $11.3 million in federal funds related to COVID relief, or CARES Act in ’21 ($11.3 million); and two distributions from the American Rescue Plan ACT (ARPA) in ’22 and ’23 ($4.2 million each year). Pock said he does not expect any “broad brush” federal programs to benefit the Town in FY ’24.

However, $2 million of CARES Act funding and $8.4 million of ARPA funding, $10.4 million total, has been allocated to the Streets Fund for paving projects expected to get underway later this fiscal year.

“All of the federal funds received were used to pay for public safety contracts with Rural/Metro and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” Pock said. “Using federal funds to pay those contracts, which would have normally been paid by the General Fund, resulted in savings for the General Fund.”

The Town Council held a workshop to go through the capital projects plan at a special workshop on Tuesday, March 14. A work session to go through the overall proposed budget plan is set for Tuesday, April 11. The council will consider adoption of the tentative budget plan at its regular session on Tuesday, May 2. Adoption of the tentative budget will have the effect of establishing the maximum budget proposal. Final budget adoption, along with an implementation memo, is scheduled for council consideration on Tuesday, June 6. The new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2023.