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City outlines use of initial Google enterprise-zone/SIP payments for water infrastructure and reserve fund
Summary
Staff described how the city has placed initial Strategic Investment Program (SIP) and enterprise zone payments from Google into a special enterprise reserve, directing future guaranteed payments to water infrastructure projects identified in the updated 20‑year water master plan.
Budget staff explained how enterprise-zone tax abatement payments and Strategic Investment Program receipts tied to two Google data centers under construction will flow into the city’s accounts and how council-directed guidance will govern their use.
Cleves said the city received initial payments under the SIP agreements tied to the first data center’s certificate of occupancy and that additional annual or guaranteed payments are expected later in the calendar year (staff said projected additional payments are unknown and therefore not budgeted). The council passed a resolution late last year guiding how to budget those funds: initial payments are placed in a Special Enterprise Reserve Fund (SIP fund); property-tax components are budgeted in the general fund; community service fees are first used for capital improvements and deferred maintenance and then placed in the Special Enterprise Reserve Fund; and the guaranteed annual payment is intended to support master-plan infrastructure projects.
Staff emphasized the city’s water master plan, a 20-year plan identifying generational projects (Wicks Water Treatment Plant upgrades, Crow Creek Dam work, transmission lines) and said the SIP guaranteed annual payments are earmarked to mitigate water-rate increases needed to fund those projects. The city used the SIP payment guidance to reduce the rate increase it previously adopted.
Cleves said the initial SIP receipts have been placed in the Special Enterprise Reserve Fund per council policy, and staff will not budget speculative future payments until amounts are known.
