By Rebekah Morris for AZBEX
The Town of Gilbert is the third-largest public agency in the state when considering capital programs, with the five-year total coming in at more than $2.1B. Only ADOT and City of Phoenix have larger capital programs.
Not in the too distant past, Gilbert’s CIP budget was less than one-quarter of what it is today. As recently as seven years ago, the total five-year CIP budget was only $508.9M, which was roughly the same level for the four years prior to FY 2016. Fiscal years 2017 – 2018 – 2019 saw the Town’s CIP budget grow substantially, ending at just under that $1B mark in FY 2019. Since FY 2020, the Town has consistently set new record high levels of capital investment with each passing year, with this fiscal year’s budget showing $2.1B+ in the CIP.
While Gilbert does produce a 10-year plan, for purposes of AZBEX reporting, only the five-year totals are used to make them comparable with other municipalities in the state. See our previous coverage of ADOT, City of Phoenix, and Valley Metro.
Parks, Streets, Water are Dominant Departments
The Town is not unique in dedicating a significant portion of its capital program to streets and water projects: More than 29% of the capital budget goes to Water Improvements and 24.6% is allocated to Streets Improvements projects.
What does set the Town apart is the dedication to improving and expanding the parks system – a full 20% of the capital budget is allocated towards this department, which is more than we have seen in other municipalities.
The Town uses a range of contract delivery methods in procuring its capital projects: “Gilbert has traditionally chosen to implement Construction Manager At-Risk (for streets, water, and wastewater, fire stations and other municipal building construction) and Job Order Contracting (for traffic signals) for the design and construction improvements. These alternative methods compared to the traditional design-bid-build low bid approach have resulted in timelier and higher quality project delivery. Gilbert will continue to utilize a design-bid-build delivery method to take advantage of the current construction bidding environment when projects are not time sensitive and do not have the need for extensive coordination with utilities or outside agencies.”
2021 Transportation Bond Provides Needed Funding
Since Gilbert does not levy a primary property tax, the secondary property tax becomes more important to capital funding. The secondary property tax provides the revenue the Town can bond against. In 2021, voters narrowly approved a $515M transportation bond at the ballot, providing a significant funding mechanism for related projects.
With population growth, sales and property tax revenue growth, the Town of Gilbert looks to be a top spot for continued public investment in capital projects.
