A bare-bones approach to creating a CIP if your organization does not already have one.

1. Version 1.0
18 March 2009
Structure for a
Comprehensive CIP

3. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Capital Improvement Budgets are long-term fi- 7. Stormwater
nancial plans. The purpose of these plans is to fore- 8. Solid Waste
cast capital improvement expenditures and meas-
9. Justice & Public Protection
ure their impacts on future budgets. These expendi-
tures are designed to enable counties and commu- 10. IT & Communications
nities to provide equal or better service over an ex- 11. General Services
tended period of time. Capital Improvements tend
12. Housing
to be large ticket items that are multi-year invest-
ments. GASB34 defines capital assets “as tangible 13. Health and Human Services
and intangible assets used in operations with useful 14. Other
lives longer than one reporting period and a mini-
When drafting a new CIP, organizations need to
mum cost based on approved capitalization levels.”
begin building financial documents based upon
Capital Budgets may be based upon existing annual
these fourteen classifications based on the depart-
budgets, or they may be used as templates to create
ments* your organization currently has and:
the Annual Budget, as well as the Comprehensive
Annual Financial Reports. The intent of this report Forecast capital spending for either five or ten
is to provide a basic template for organizations that years; and
either do not currently produce a capital improve- Predict future revenue streams for these capital
ments budget or would like to improve their budg- expenditures.
eting process.
Long-range financial documents may not be able
Organizations that do not currently have a CIP
to precisely reflect the future source of funds or
need to evaluate producing the three financial re-
costs of a project. The purpose of identifying fund-
ports,(the comprehensive annual financial report,
ing sources is to approximate future tax rates,
the annual budget, and the CIP, ) in a standard
bonds, or reserve needed to complete the capital
process. Data classifications from one report need
improvements.
to be consistent with the data classifications in the
other two reports. The Development and Infrastruc- If programs are projected less than five years in
ture Partnership has identified fourteen classifica- advance funding may be difficult to procure. If pro-
tions for capital improvement programs. The ma- grams are projected out further than ten years costs
jority of the CIPs reviewed have similar classifica- and revenues become, at best, educated guesses.
tions. There are precedents for classifying funds for pro-
The fourteen classifications identified by the Tri- jects as unauthorized bonds or unfunded projects,
angle J Development and Infrastructure Partner- especially projects that are timed towards the far
ship are: end of the timetable. If revenue streams cannot be
identified, a separate unfunded CIP section needs to
1. Schools
be established. Projected costs of the capital im-
2. Transportation provements, including inflation, need to be clearly
3. Parks and Open space quantified and qualified.
4. Arts and Culture * Note: ‘Departments’ and ‘classifications’ will be
used interchangeably throughout this document.
5. Water
(Continued on page 2)
6. Wastewater
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4. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
The reasons to standardize the creation of financial 5. Project the maintenance and development costs
reports are straightforward. Data from the Capital Im-
6. Allocate the staff costs, where appropriate.
provement Program can be migrated into the Annual
Budget and then summarized in the subsequent year‟s 7. Using the following template, identify the source(s)
Comprehensive Annual Financial report. When data is of funds needed for each project/program item – not
entered in a standardized manner, using standardized all communities will have all options available:
project identifiers, reports may be updated without re-
General Funds
inventing the process. Finally, a standardized product
is beneficial to the reader, especially those who may Reserve Funds
read the same financial documents year in and year
Approved Bonds (Bonds, 2/3 bonds, revenue
out. There are instances where the name of a project, a
bonds, utility bonds.)
school or a park, may change during the period from
concept and design to finished project. Where names Certificates of Participation
of projects change a translation tables is necessary. The
Impact Fees
unique project code should not change( e.g. PR2008-
12 for a Parks and Recreation Project added to the CIP Special Funds (Powell Funds, Lottery Proceeds,
during the 2008 CIP Budget, one of 12 Parks and Rec- Grants)
reation Projects identified that year.)
Bonds – Unapproved
Successful CIPs will reflect the mission and vision of
the organization. The mission is why the organization Funds – Unapproved
exists. The vision is where the organization is heading.
7. Create a summary page for each department,
Capital Improvement Programs can be seen as Goals
totaling the revenue and expenses of the individual
statements for the organization. Goals have time lines
projects. (Page 5, Step 4)
and costs associated with them. The process of creat-
ing a vision or a mission statement is outside the scope 8. Link each cell from the project level to the next
of this report. level up in the document - the Department Level.
(e.g. Schools B2 ='School Project #1'!B2) Total Cost
The process of creating the CIP document can be as for Lake Church Elementary 2009-09.
simple as using Excel or one of a number of programs
designed for creating CIPs such as CIPAccess/CIPAce, 9. Link each Department Level to the Summary by
PlanIt!, CIPS, CIPvizion, orTeamBudget Capital. Category Page (eg. 14 Categories Schools B2 =
Schools!B16 ) Total for all school projects for 2008-
When the initial template is designed in Excel or a 09.
similar product:
10. Link each of the Funding Source Cells and the
1. Determine if the capital improvements are single-
Maintenance/Development Cost cells using the same
year or multi-year projects.
process.
2. Create a Template for the Fourteen Classifications,
11. Compile a summary page for the organization,
with Funding Sources and Maintenance /
totaling the expenditures and the funding sources for
Development Costs (Steps 1 and 2, Page 3)
all departments, including those that operate outside
3. Create 14 pages, representing the 14 categories of the General Fund, an example being Utilities.
(Step 3, page 4)
12. Enter the current tax base and projected tax bases
4.Detail the upfront capital costs for subsequent years. Use your current tax rate to
(Continued on page 4)
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5. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Step 1: Rename “Sheet1” to “14 Categories” by right-clicking on the “sheet1” tab at the bottom of the worksheet, selecting „rename‟ and
changing the text when the cursor goes to a bar on that tab.
Step 2: Recreate the table below with whichever items you require or will require in your CIPs:
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6. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
calculate projected revenue. 14. Using the same process as used for the funding
sources, and project costs, reference the individual
13. Calculate the amount of tax one penny would pro- penny rates and tax rate impacts forward to the cate-
duce and calculate the tax rate impact for the individ- gory/department summary page, and move that total
ual projects. forward to the overall summary page.
(Continued on page 7)
Step 3: For each of the 14 items under “Category” in Step 2, create another worksheet/tab.
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7. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Step 4: In each of these category worksheets, create the following table:
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8. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Step 5: For each project you list in each category sheet, create a separate sheet with the following table:
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9. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Data from each project is best if it flows through the The current tax rate
spreadsheets such that lines and columns on
successive pages are in complete alignment. The Penny Rate (one cent of property tax on
property values)
Special care must be taken when classifying
projects that may receive bond funds to ensure that The collection rate
the expenditures do not commingle different
The image below (Figure 1) was found in the
approved bond categories.
Chatham County Budget for 2007-08. It provides a
If the project(s) identified are long-term or quick snapshot of the Budget. A similar image could
recurring investments other items must be identified be produced for a CIP.
at the :
Referencing the need for future funds or bonds as
Reserve Balances unapproved, as previously noted, is potentially
problematic, unless a discussion of future bonds or
Reserve Contributions future revenue streams is broached.
Revenue Sources (Special Funds, Grants, Project pages are improved through the addition of
Fees, Special Sales tax, or Impact Fees, Bonds) geographic locations of the project. If your
organization uses GIS, creating a shapefile or a
Capital Budgets or Capital Improvement plans need geodatabase of projects to track potential projects ,
to identify: data tables can be generated from the “dbf” files
associated with the layers. Fields that should be
Property Values (and the date of the last
revaluation) (Continued on page 8)
Figure 1: Budget snapshot from Chatham County Budget
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10. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
included in the shapefiles or database layers are: SUMMARY
Project Identifier Capital Improvement Programs are long-range fiscal
planning documents that are connected to prolonged
Department physical improvements or capital intensive in nature.
The multi-year, multi-project nature of the CIP offers
Name
flexibility in funding. CIPs, when standardized, can aid
Alias in the development of Annual Budgets and Compre-
hensive Annual Financial Reports. CIPs can also aid in
Phase
the planning of future bond needs or project changes
Physical Location/Address in either future tax rates or service levels. Standardiza-
tion of the CIP process will be beneficial to the fiscal
Type of Project and physical planning of an organization. The stan-
Date added to CIP dardization of the CIP process can be done using finan-
cial workbook software such as Excel, or through any
Year for Project to Occur/start number of CIP software programs. Classifying the data
according to the fourteen categories delineated by the
Year Completed
Development and Infrastructure partnership will aid
Funding Source(s) organizations that wish to make peer-to-peer compari-
sons or organizations that wish to streamline the finan-
Bond Package/Classification
cial planning process.
Cost (Projected) If your organization does not currently provide
wastewater, sewer, or water services at this time, for
Cost (Actual)
example, it may not seem to be necessary to itemize
See the project page provided by the Town of Hills- these classifications or departments. If your organiza-
borough (Page 9, Figure 2). tion is looking to add these services, or any of the other
eleven services, during the next five to ten years, then
it will be beneficial to consider these items within the
context of the current CIP and future CIPs.
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11. Triangle J Council of Governments CIP Good Practices
Development & Infrastructure Partnership Version 1.0 18 March 2009
Figure 2: Sample project page from Town of Hillsborough (photo added for example)
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