FY 2021 AMENDED COUNTY BUDGET GUIDELINES AND PRIORITIES.PDF

MARICOPA COUNTY 
FY 2021 AMENDED Budget Guidelines and Priorities 
For Consideration by the Board of Supervisors on April 8, 2020 
 
On January 15, 2020 the Board of Supervisors approved budget guidelines and 
priorities for FY 2021.  The purpose of these guidelines and priorities is to provide 
direction from the Board of Supervisors to Elected Officials, the Judicial Branch, 
the County Manager, the Budget Office and all departments so that they can 
develop a sustainable, structurally-balanced budget that achieves the County’s 
mission and strategic goals as set forth in the Maricopa County Strategic Plan 
within available resources. 
 
In recent weeks, the economic outlook for FY 2021 has changed dramatically as 
a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, necessitating amendments to the guidelines.  
 
Property Taxes 
After consideration of all long-term pension contribution obligations and state 
mandated payments, it is anticipated the primary property tax rate will remain 
unchanged for FY 2021. 
 
Other Major Revenue Source Assumptions 
The base budget will assume the recession forecast values from the County’s 
economic consultants for State-Shared Sales tax, State-Shared Vehicle License 
tax, and Jail Excise Tax revenues.     
 
Employer Retirement Contribution Funding 
The base operating budget will be adjusted to fund the change to retirement 
expense based on the annually computed contribution rates determined by the 
retirement plans’ actuary.  No decisions on other budget requests will be made 
until after resources have been identified to support the employer’s retirement 
contributions and any increases thereto.   
 
Employee Compensation 
Given the recent shock to the economy and the forecasted decline in revenues, 
pay-for-performance will not be included in the FY 2021 budget. 
 
Budget Requests 
1) Base budget requests for all departments and funds should allocate resources 
to fulfill departmental mandates and should be prepared within baseline 
amounts equal to the current budget plus authorized adjustments.   
 
The Budget Office is directed to review and/or adjust budget baselines for the 
following: 
 
a) The annualized impact of FY 2020 budget issues or mid-year adjustments.

FY 2021 AMENDED Maricopa County Budget Guidelines and Priorities 
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b) The annualized impact of other items, including intergovernmental 
agreements and operational cost of technology initiatives, which were 
approved by the Board of Supervisors, so long as the impact was disclosed 
at the time of the initial Board approval. 
c) Items required by State law, such as judges’ and elected officials’ salary 
increases and mandated contributions to AHCCCS, ALTCS, Juvenile 
Corrections, the Department of Revenue and other mandated programs. 
d) The annualized impact of mid-year base rate changes funded from FY 2020 
Pay-for-Performance funding.  All one-time lump sum amounts from the 
FY2020 Pay-for-Performance funding will be reversed in the department’s 
budget baseline. 
 
2) All departments must submit their General Fund and Detention Fund base 
expenditure budget requests within their baseline budget unless otherwise 
provided for in these guidelines.  No funding will be available for new or 
expanded programs in the General or Detention Funds.  There will be no 
process for Board of Supervisor approval to review any requests above 
baseline which were not previously disclosed during a presentation to the 
Board of Supervisors.   
 
Budgeted revenue in any fund may exceed baseline amounts if justified by 
projections. 
 
Special Revenue Fund budget requests may exceed baselines, provided 
revenue projections are sufficient to retain structural balance.   
 
If the current revenue baseline in a Special Revenue fund cannot be met, 
departments must reduce both base expenditures and revenue by an amount 
sufficient to restore structural balance. 
 
3) Where a request for additional General or Detention funding in order to meet 
mandated services has been identified and quantified by a department during 
a presentation to the Board of Supervisors, the requesting department may 
submit a supplemental funding request on the supplemental budget forms 
provided by the Budget office.   
 
The budget submission date for both the baseline and supplemental budget 
request for departments with a supplemental funding request will be no later 
than 2 weeks from the adoption of these guidelines to allow for an adequate 
review of both existing resources as well as the supplemental request. 
 
4) All budget submissions will be analyzed by the Budget Office for potential 
efficiencies.  The Budget Office will develop an initial base operating budget 
recommendation which would include any adjustments to existing operating 
budgets based on the analysis for efficiencies as well as changes to benefits 
and internal service costs.  Any supplemental requests which would be

FY 2021 AMENDED Maricopa County Budget Guidelines and Priorities 
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recommended for funding would also be included in the initial base operating 
budget recommendation. 
 
5) Based on the current forecast from the County’s contract economist, the 
Budget Office is directed to reduce the appropriation for departmental initial 
base operating budget recommendations in the General and Detention Funds 
by 2%.  There will be no reduction to the initial base operating budget 
recommendation for departments with a direct role in responding to the COVID-
19 pandemic.    
 
The Budget Office is directed to monitor the revenue forecast and determine if 
additional reductions are needed prior to final budget adoption.  Departments 
should be prepared to submit additional reductions if needed based on the 
forecast. 
  
The Budget Office is directed to advise departments of the amount of their 
reduction for each impacted appropriation.  Departments will provide the 
Budget Office with the line item details to enter the reduction into the budget 
system on the forms provided no later than 2 days from the receipt of the form. 
When developing the reductions, departments should be aware that in FY 
2021, there will be no funding available for personnel savings not met.  If forms 
are not received by the due date, the Budget Office is directed to make the 
necessary adjustments to balance to the new appropriation. 
  
6) All departments with special revenue funds are expected to review their 
revenue estimates and spending projections in light of the COVID-19 
pandemic. 
 
Any concerns about not being able to cover FY 2020 costs with existing 
sources and incoming revenue shall be brought to the attention of the Budget 
Office immediately. 
 
 
Departments will be asked to provide budget balancing plans for special 
revenue funds at the beginning of the new fiscal year. More instructions will 
follow, but it should minimally be assumed that the General and Detention 
Funds should not be considered as a funding alternative and fund 
balances may only be used to support ongoing operations as a short-term 
measure. 
 
 
User Fees 
Per the Budgeting and Accountability Policy, user fees are to be reviewed annually 
in conjunction with the budget development process.  Existing user fees will be re-
evaluated and necessary changes should be presented to the Board of 
Supervisors.

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Contingency, Reserves and Fund Balances 
The Budget Office is directed to provide a recommendation for the reserved and 
unreserved levels of operating contingency in the General Fund. 
 
In accordance with the Board of Supervisors’ strategic goals regarding structural 
balance and reserves, fund balances will first be used to maintain reserves equal 
to two-months of prior year operating expenditures in the General and Detention 
funds.  A decision on reserve levels will be made prior to allocation of General or 
Detention fund balances for any other purpose. 
 
No requests for new non-recurring, one-time General or Detention funds will be 
entertained, unless they were 
 identified and quantified during a presentation to the Board or were part of 
a previous Board approved initiative and disclosed at the time of the 
Board’s approval of the initiative and  
 are necessary to meet mandated services. 
 
In accordance with the Board of Supervisors’ strategic goal regarding structural 
balance, requests to use Special Revenue fund balances should be limited to 
either building reserves or one-time, non-recurring expenditures and should not be 
used to offset an operating deficit.  Any use of fund balances and other non-
recurring sources to support an operating budget deficit must be specifically 
approved by the Board of Supervisors. 
 
Expenditure Limitation 
Increases to expenditures will be evaluated for their impact to the County’s 
Expenditure Limitation as outlined in the Arizona Constitution Article 9 Section 20 
and Arizona Revised Statute 41-563.  To mitigate the impact of expenditure 
increases on the expenditure limitation, financing will be considered where there 
is an established, conservative repayment plan. 
 
Capital Improvement Program 
No funding will be available for General and Detention funded new capital 
improvement projects until reserve decisions have been made by the Board of 
Supervisors.  Requests for Facilities Capital Improvement or Information 
Technology projects will be reviewed using a process defined by the Facilities 
Management Department or the Office of Enterprise Technology.  Only projects 
identified during a budget presentation to the Board of Supervisors will be 
considered as part of the Facilities Management Department or Office of 
Enterprise Technology review process.  Projects prioritized as part of this review 
process will be forwarded for consideration by the Board for funding within 
available resources.  
 
Existing projects may be discontinued based on the prioritization and available 
funds.

FY 2021 AMENDED Maricopa County Budget Guidelines and Priorities 
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The Transportation Department will work with the Budget Office to develop an 
updated Transportation Capital Improvement Program budget for FY 2021 that, 
within available non-recurring resources, meets the strategic goal of developing, 
identifying funding, and beginning to implement a long-range plan for addressing 
HURF funded projects and transportation infrastructure needs.