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City of Lincoln
Planning
What is a Capital Improvement Program?
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A capital improvement program (CIP) is a blueprint for planning a community's public capital
spending and is one of the most important responsibilities of municipal government. The CIP
deals with the physical improvement or replacement of City-owned infrastructure and facilities.
Capital improvements are projects with a useful life of fifteen or more years that maintain,
upgrade or replace public infrastructure and public service providing facilities.
The CIP provides a multi-year list of proposed major capital expenditures for the City. This
program attempts to set funding strategies not only for the current year, but also to project future
needs for major construction projects and land acquisition. The City constantly looks ahead on
how we will improve major items such as roads, utilities, police, fire, parks and other community
buildings for the people of Lincoln. Capital expenditures are viewed not only in the context of
how much the new project will cost, but also what impact the project will have on the City's
operating budget.
The CIP is not intended to be an all-inclusive inventory of the City of Lincoln's capital needs for
the upcoming six years. It is a document that outlines planned capital improvements, given
available financial resources.
A CIP has the following benefits:
- Facilitates coordination between capital needs and the operating budgets.
- Enhances the community's credit rating, control of its tax rate, and avoids
sudden changes in its debt service requirements.
- Identifies the most economical means of financing capital projects.
- Increases opportunity for obtaining federal and state aid.
- Relates public facilities to other public and private development and
redevelopment policies and plans.
- Focuses attention on community objectives and fiscal capacity.
- Keeps the public informed about future needs and projects.
- Coordinates the activities of neighborhood and overlapping units of local
government to reduce duplication.
- Encourages careful project planning and design to avoid costly mistakes and
help a community reach desired goals.
Capital Improvement Program