The preliminary number crunching and head scratching by staff is finished and now it is time for the Town Council and the public to start pouring over the proposed town budget for the 2017-2018 Fiscal Year.

Council members have been given their copies and the 400-plus pages of numbers and charts have been posted to the town website for public perusal.

The draft budget plan calls for a total of $38.9 million in spending for the next year. This is broken down to $17.9 million for the operating (General Fund) budget; $6.7 million for the special revenue funds; $2.9 million in debt service and $11.2 million for the capital project funding.

The operating budget accounts for nearly half of the total budget for the coming year, with the largest share of that going for public safety contracts. The agreements with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Rural/Metro each will cost about $3.8 million. Administration, general government and Community Services all account for about $2.3 million each in the proposed budget.

Town Manager Grady Miller said that while he received some compelling requests for new positions in the new budget, there simply is not enough revenue to support new personnel.

Only two new positions are proposed for the budget. Those are both part-time; a permit technician and a plans examiner. Miller notes that building permit activity and building permit revenues are up, so those positions can be justified.

There is a budget recommendation for a 2.5 percent wage increase for existing employees. This would cost a total of $78,790.

Health insurance costs are always a concern, but Miller said the town seems to have a handle on those for now. A year ago the town joined a new employee health insurance pool in an effort to address those increasing costs.

For the upcoming fiscal year the Town’s portion of costs for employee medical, dental, vision and other related benefits will increase by $21,830, or 3.4 percent. This is one of the smallest increases the Town has experienced in recent years, according to Miller.

The budget proposal recommends $11,196,149 in capital improvement projects for the coming year. The largest of those projects have been ongoing in planning and design for several years and are arriving at the construction stage.

Those include the relocation of Fire Station #2 to a site on Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of Shea Boulevard at Muskrat Drive. That project is approximately $3 million.

The second project is the development of the central trailhead site for the Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve. The price tag on that is anticipated at around $2 million. Nearly all of that funding has been accumulated over the years with the collection of Open Space Development Fees. This is a fee the town no longer collects.

These two projects account for about 75 percent of the entire capital budget for the year.

Another capital purchase the town is looking at, but with funding from the vehicle replacement fund, is a new fire department ladder truck.

The current truck is 20 years old where ladder trucks normally have a 15 year replacement schedule. New high rise development in the downtown may call for updated equipment in this regard.

Miller said the town is able to take advantage of an existing contract through the cities of Mesa and Phoenix which would realize savings of $100,000 to $150,000 on what is estimated to be an $800,000 purchase. The surplus value of the existing ladder truck is currently $100,000 with that value depreciating rapidly.

Staff will conduct a cost/benefit analysis of purchasing versus leasing a ladder truck.

The public can learn more about the budget and the process at an open house scheduled for this Thursday, April 20 from 6 to 6:30 p.m. prior to the regular Town Council session.

Council will hold a special session on Monday, April 24, to go over the proposed budget in detail to prepare for consideration of the tentative budget figures at its regular session on Thursday, May 4.

When the council meets on Thursday, June 1, it will hold a special session with a public hearing to consider final adoption of the budget.

The new budget year begins on July 1.