The Town Council is ready to go over its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2023/2024 when it meets for a workshop session on Tuesday, April 11.

Finance Director David Pock said he is anticipating the overall budget plan will total somewhere around $47 million for the coming year. That is expected to be in the range of a 2% to 4% increase over the budget for the current year that ends June 30.

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.

The Capital Improvement Budget, following a council discussion on March 14, is $6.4 million divided between public works projects ($4.4 million) and community services projects ($2 million).

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 workshop on April 11 will have the council going over the numbers for the entire budget plan. Pock said he expects the numbers will be changed again. Following that discussion, the budget will be presented as a Tentative Budget to the council 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.

The Tuesday, April 11 session will be held at 4:30 p.m. in council chambers at Town Hall. The meeting is open to the public.