CIP Background

Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

Published yearly in August, the CIP details Omaha’s plans for five functional areas.

Mode Shift focuses on the Transportation projects, which are listed and described, along with some of their cost for the previous year, the appropriated funds for this year, and the capital budget for the next 6 years.

The funds are from many sources - local, City, and Federal.

CIP Projects: Not Pothole Repair

A CIP project must have a useful life of 15 years, so the CIP does not fund pothole repairs - which are funded by gas tax and wheel tax. The CIP may fund street resurfacing - if it lasts 15 or more years. And it may fund street widening, which eventually compounds the pothole repair problem by adding more streets to maintain, but the CIP does not fund pothole repairs.

CIP Funding

52% of the current capital budget comes from Street and Highway Transportation Bonds (“Street Bonds”, for short), which are funded entirely by Omaha Property Taxes. Every 4 years or so, the City asks voters to approve the issue of Street Bonds. This year on May 15, the City asked voters to approve the biggest issue ever. by a factor of 3. In return for this approval, the City commits to complete some transportation projects.

The rest of the fund come from other City sources (4%), Federal (34%), and other local sources (10%). Past records show that Federal funds are nearly always underestimated and eventually end up more than forecast.

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