Queen Creek council approves $840M final budget

The Queen Creek Town Council has unanimously approved an $840.6 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that focuses heavily on infrastructure projects.

The construction of the new police headquarters and infrastructure for delivering Harquahala water have triggered an increase of $212.9 million, or 34%, over the current year’s budget of $627.7 million.

Overall, 56% of the total budget, or $472.3 million, is dedicated to infrastructure projects.

Despite the big-ticket items, the budget also reflects an $18.5 million reduction in taxes and fees.

“Making fiscally responsible decisions while also being mindful of quality of life and our sense of community in Queen Creek is so incredibly important to us as a council, and I’m so proud that as a town we continue to invest our dollars in meaningful and impactful projects that benefit all of our residents,” Mayor Julia Wheatley said during the May 20 council meeting.

Under the final approval, $177.5 million of the infrastructure budget will go toward water resources, including the last payment in July for the 1.2 million acre-feet of Harquahala basin water the town agreed to purchase last fall for $244.4 million. An acre-foot is enough water to cover 1 acre in 1 foot of water, or about 326,000 gallons.

The final budget also includes $67.1 million in infrastructure needed to get the water into the town. In this current fiscal year, the town shifted $19.3 million from other infrastructure projects to begin work on the delivery system.

Purchasing Harquahala Valley water is an important part of the town’s overall goal to become a designated water provider by January 2027, eliminating its dependence on the Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District.

Once the town becomes a designated water provider, the CAGRD fee charged on residents’ property taxes — more than $13 million in the upcoming fiscal year alone — will be eliminated.

The new budget also includes the construction of a new headquarters building for the Queen Creek Police Department. The final budget has $106.1 million for public safety infrastructure, with $78.9 million going to the new headquarters.

Transportation will receive $71.1 million for infrastructure such as widening key roads, building a bridge over the Sonoqui Wash, intersection improvements, traffic signals and drainage.

Under the final budget, the public works and utilities departments have been allocated four new positions each. The police department will be getting six new employees, while the fire department will get four.

Salaries for all town employees will rise by a 3% market increase, and health care premiums are expected to remain unchanged.

For the fourth year in a row, the budget incorporates the “freeze” in property taxes for existing property owners.

In 2022, the council voted to freeze the primary property tax amount paid by homeowners for five years, meaning that even when the median assessed value of a home increases, residents will pay the same tax as they did the previous year. This in turn will continue to lower the property tax rate each year.

By the end of the five-year freeze, the property tax rate will have fallen to $1.40 per $100. For this fiscal year, the freeze equals a $5.1 million reduction, bringing the cumulative four-year total to $15.7 million.

The council will be voting on the property tax levy at its June 3 meeting. The new fiscal year starts on July 1.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.