What are the City’s funding sources?
City Finances

The City of Surprise earns revenue through ongoing and one-time sources.

Ongoing revenue sources include:

local sales taxes
primary property taxes (see chart below for city’s share)
state shared revenue
utility collections

This chart shows the percentage breakdown for how primary property tax (ongoing revenue) collections are allocated:

Currently the city of Surprise has no general obligation bond debt and no secondary property tax. The chart below shows the current (primary only) property tax rate in Surprise, and the combined (primary and secondary) tax rate after Phase One of the general obligation bond package is issued.

One-time revenue sources are non-recurring sources such as:

development impact fee
construction sales tax
fund balance
borrowing

Note: One-time revenues are not recommended for ongoing purposes.

The City has used one-time revenues to pay for Capital Improvement Projects including the Public Safety Building, City Hall, Bell Road Improvements and fire stations.

The City collected $322 million in one-time revenues from FY 2004 – FY 2008. The City estimates one-time revenue collections between FY 2010-2014 will be $70 million

Below are graphs showing single-family residential permit and commercial permit totals from FY 2004- FY 2009 and estimates through FY 2014:

Sources of One-Time Revenue: Single Family Residential Permits

Sources of One-Time Revenue: Commercial, Office, Multifamily

The City of Surprise’s current General Fund FY 2010 budget is $75,891,900 and the current city population is approximately 108,000.

General Fund money is used to pay for Fire, Police, streets, parks, government operations, salaries and supplies.
The city spends on average $1.96 per day, per resident, to maintain and provide the services listed above.