Budget Memorandum

Overview:

The Regional Road Capital Improvement Program coordinates the planning, design, and construction and maintenance of the County’s regional transportation system. Projects that appear as part of this program are arterial and collector road projects, design projects, studies, public transportation funding, and pavement management costs for the Regional Roadway Program. Individual pavement management project costs that trend into the hundreds of thousands of dollars are typically given an individual line item in the program, for transparency’s sake. All pavement management costs are listed in the supporting documentation following the five-year plan in the budget. Minor roadways and residential streets are maintained by HURF.

The Regional Road program was adopted by the Board of Supervisors in June 1994 and funded through a portion of the half-cent sales tax that became effective August 1, 1994. Initially, 90% of the revenue from this sales tax was designated for use in the Regional Road Program. Since that time this percentage has been adjusted numerous times, however, over the last ten years it has remained at 40%. Since the inception of the program, funding was divided according to the original three Board member district lines, with the Western District funding representing the original supervisory Districts 1 and 2, and the Eastern District funding representing the original supervisory District 3. The five-year plan is still represented in this manner for historical tracking purposes, as well as ensuring that future funding is programmed per original expectations.

The Public Works Department has continued to refine the estimated revenues and anticipated project expenditures for this fiscal year, and has provided a revised DRAFT 5-Year Regional Road Capital Improvement Plan with this budget submittal. This 5-year plan shows proposed and already programmed projects, as well as an appropriate distribution between eastern and western area projects. We have included some projects already discussed with Board members, and the Eastern area has pushed a large sum of funding into Cornville Road in order to make improvements that are recommended by the currently ongoing Corridor Safety Study on this road as well as other regionally significant roads such as Iron Springs Road. Public Works staff are happy to make suggestions with regards to where some of the more critical needs are, as well as taking advantage of potential partnerships or leveraging funds for improvements associated with proposed development.

All other projects have been previously programmed in prior years, although there may be some periodic shifting of funding and expenditure years to help address shortfalls after public bids or revenue strength. We are happy to provide further details on any of the listed projects. As always, the projects further out in the 5-year plan are subject to discussion and change, based on feedback received from the Board and outside agencies.

Regional Roads Program Changes:

Public Works is not requesting any specific program changes or Exhibit 3s as part of the FY 22-23 budget proposal for the Regional Roads program.

This concludes the annual budget memorandum for the Public Works Department. I look forward to working with the Board of Supervisors through the budget process. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions regarding this Department’s proposal. Thank you for your consideration of this budget as submitted.

To view the Public Works Regional Roads 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan, please use this link:

Regional Roads 5-Year Capital Improvements Plan