Avondale City Council FY26 Budget Discussion and Capital Improvement Plan Update - October 15, 2025
Avondale City Council FY26 Budget Discussion and Capital Improvement Plan Update - October 15, 2025
The Avondale City Council held its first budget discussion for Fiscal Year 2026 on October 15, 2025. The meeting provided a high-level overview of financial projections, capital improvement projects, and budget priorities. Key topics included the city's strong revenue performance, the loss of residential rental tax revenue, the need for a structural balance, and upcoming capital needs such as PFAS treatment and wastewater expansion. The council also received updates on the GO Bond Committee and discussed compensation, benefits, and departmental capacity.
Discussion Items
- Financial Update (Rob Baer, Finance Director): The city ended FY2024 with general fund revenues $11 million above the March forecast, driven by strong construction and contracting activity. Sales tax revenue was $2.6 million above forecast. However, retail sales tax growth is flat, and the city will lose $5–6 million annually from the elimination of residential rental sales tax (effective January 2025). State shared revenue is down 9% due to the state flat tax implementation. The city maintains a structurally balanced budget with ongoing revenues exceeding ongoing expenses by about $2.5 million in FY26 and FY27. The general fund balance is over $120 million, with $30 million above minimum reserves projected by FY2030.
- Capital Improvement Plan (Rick Carr, Engineering CIP Division Manager): Completed projects valued at $33.1 million, including the Mountain View Park expansion, detention center/PD substation, and Avondale Boulevard resurfacing. Under construction projects total $40.2 million, including Civic Center Park, Fire Station 171 replacement, and Old Town phases. Future projects include Western Avenue reconstruction, bridge housing, and Friendship Park improvements. The GO Bond Committee is reviewing potential projects for a November 2025 bond election, with a capacity of $120 million without raising property taxes. Proposed projects include trail networks, park shade, Civic Center library renovations, and public safety facilities.
- Compensation and Benefits (Andy, HR): A market study is underway; about 20% of positions may need adjustments. COLA and merit increases are being considered (3–5% total). Health care costs are expected to rise 11%, and the city is exploring a deferred compensation match for all employees and a sick leave sell-back program for police.
- PFAS and Water Infrastructure (Kirk, Utilities Director): New EPA regulations require PFAS treatment by April 2029. Approximately 70% of the city's water supply is impacted, with an estimated $105 million in treatment infrastructure needed. The city is also participating in the Bartlett Dam expansion project (cost $15 million) to offset Colorado River shortages. The wastewater treatment plant expansion is estimated at $150 million, requiring impact fee adjustments.
- Budget Priorities (City Manager Ron Corbin): Emphasized economic development, job growth, business attraction, public safety, parks and recreation, and connected communities. The city has reduced vacancies from over 100 to 43 (5% vacancy rate). Key new requests include expanding El Mirage Road, Desi Lorenz Park turf reduction, and an indoor pickleball facility (estimated $19 million, but expected lower after design).
- Councilmember Observations: Councilmember Garcia noted the need for better community outreach to inform residents of ongoing projects. Councilmember White reported on her participation in MLK Day events and her appointment to the National League of Cities racial equity council. Councilmember Solorio was appointed to the NLC economic development committee and as vice chair of the small cities council.
Key Outcomes
- The council received the financial update and CIP report without formal action. The next budget work session is scheduled for March 2025 after the strategic planning retreat.
- Utility rates and impact fees for wastewater and solid waste will be presented to council in February 2025.
- The GO Bond Committee will continue meetings; council will consider proposed ballot questions in May 2025.
- The city will proceed with design for the indoor pickleball facility and the Desi Lorenz Park turf reduction project.
- The council expressed appreciation for staff efforts and agreed to continue the budget process with further discussions on priorities.
Meeting Transcript
Yes, we hopefully we'll be able to answer all the questions that you have, but this is the uh first meeting of the council to begin to talk about the FY twenty-six budget. Normally we have this meeting in December. It's meant to be high level priorities direction. We have just begun council, I'm sorry, we've just begun uh department budget meetings, so we've just begun actually all the little easy ones so far. Um and so um this is a good time for us to hear from you if we're headed in the right direction, if we have the right priorities, if there's big things. There will be lots of times to evaluate the actual budget. That'll be coming several months from now. Um you'll be able to uh see more line items, more uh specifics. So this is meant to be thirty thousand foot. Um but again any direction now's a good time for us to be able to plug it into into the budget. Um so with that I will turn it over to Rob uh to get us started. All right, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. My name is Robert Baer, and I'll be giving the uh financial update part of this presentation. We also have the CIP update um and the we'll cover some budget priorities. So starting off, we'll go take a look at how we ended the last fiscal year, fiscal year twenty-four. So um we'll first take a look at general fund revenue. So our general fund is um our the fund that we center a lot of discussions on during the budget process because one, it is where a lot of our frontline services like police, fire, parks, um, that's where the funding comes from for those um areas in the city. Um two, most of the employees here in the city are paid out of that fund, so it is of special focus when we go through the budget process. For general fund revenues, our largest source of revenues in the general fund is our sales tax. Um in March of 24, as we were preparing the twenty-five budget, we came forward with an estimate for each of our major revenue sources. And then we're taking a look at the actuals and how we ended the year. So with sales tax, we ended two point six million dollars above what we were anticipating in March, which is a very positive variance, um, mostly due to strong construction and contracting activity throughout the city. Um of the other ones we'd like to highlight is charges for service, which is also related to a lot of the development happening in the city. So we saw very strong returns in the last three months for those revenue sources. And then for our property sales and interest, we um have been able to earn higher interest on our investments on our fund balance here in the city. Um so all in total for general fund revenues compared to where we were estimating in March. So all in total for general fund revenues compared to where we were estimating in March, we ended the year 11 million dollars above that forecast, which is uh good to roll into fiscal year 25. On the expense side, um for the general fund, um we had an estimate which was below budget, but um we estimated where we were anticipating end of the year, and then we have our actuals. Um for the general fund, um we ended 2.1 million dollars higher than what our estimate was in March. Part of that was um we had some expenses that we were anticipating that were originally budgeted in 24 that we anticipated those actually hitting in fiscal year 25, but those actually did hit in 24. So that increases the 24 amount but decreases what we anticipate in 25. Um a second part of that is we had some savings um in public safety that we were able to um pay down some of our unfunded liability for our public safety pensions. Um our other major operating funds here in the city include our public safety sales tax fund, our and our utility funds. Um those um were pretty close to where we were estimating in March. Um public safety was a little bit above due to that same um paying down of the unfunded pension liabilities, um, and our utilities were pretty close to where we were anticipating in March. So with our general fund balance um coming into fiscal year 25, so we ended fiscal year 24, um over 120 million dollars, which is above on the orange line, which is our stabilization or minimum reserve amount in the general fund. We do have a dotted line on here. So we do have a number of capital projects that were initially budgeted in 24. They did not uh were not completed in 24, they will probably complete in 25. So that budget was initially in the 24 budget, it carries over into the 25 budget. But since that was already authorized in the 24 budget, if we include that in our estimate, that lowers um our fund balance by about 16 million dollars. So that's just kind of an important caveat to take a look at as we look at the budget. So giving an update on how we're trending this fiscal year, so we're about halfway through the year, a little bit more. Um going into the fiscal year 25, what we included in this budget, we included 511 million dollars in funded CIP. We approved um additional full-time positions, full-time equivalent positions of 13.4. Um we had funded supplementals, so additions to the budget of $13.3 million. We fully implemented the police take-home vehicle program, and then we also included um service increases for we ride. For our revenues, um, halfway through the year. Um, for our general fund, right now, compared to prior year actuals, we're $8.7 million above prior year actuals. And compared to our budget, we're $3.6 million above.
openpublica.com