Arizona Builder’s Exchange’s Eric Jay Toll’s story highlights the capital project prospects for the current fiscal year and the opportunities for A/E/C business development. The good news is there is a little more money in capital programs across the state as Arizona continues its slow, but steady, recession recovery. The challenge for public agencies, counties and cities is there are more capital needs than capital dollars to spend.
Looking at the sprawling list of capital projects scattered across the state of Arizona, the quantity is mighty impressive. The volume, however, is still down from pre-recession days. Arizona Department of Transportation, cities of Phoenix, Glendale and Mesa, counties of Maricopa, Yuma and Coconino, are all looking to stretch capital dollars across growing needs.
Funding Sources are Less Robust
Phoenix has $6B in transportation needs, but only $500M in this year’s capital budget for the department.
Phoenix relies on the Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF), the collected gas taxes that are supposed to be divided among the state, counties and cities, to fund transportation projects.
The Arizona legislature saw the pot as a way to add to the state general fund balancing act, and it’s been skimming taxpayers money ever since 2008.
As a result, it’s a struggle to expand while using capital dollars to maintain existing infrastructure. Arizona can’t build onto its transportation system fast enough to keep up with even the slowed population growth.
