Conference Agenda

The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program is a government bank operated by EPA headquarters that provides supplemental, flexible, low-cost credit assistance to public and private borrowers for all types of wastewater, drinking water, and stormwater projects. The WIFIA program offers long-term loans that can be combined with State Revolving Fund assistance, municipal bonds, and federal and state grants to help communities deliver more critical water infrastructure projects for a lower cost with less impact on rate payers.

In this session, we will provide an overview of the WIFIA program and describe WIFIA’s water infrastructure-related eligibilities and priorities. Additionally, we will discuss the benefits and flexibilities of WIFIA financing, including customized repayment schedules, coordination with other types of debt, the option to fund multiple projects through a single loan, and the ability to finance a combination of staggered projects, like those in a capital improvement plan, under a “master agreement”. Finally, we will demonstrate, through case studies presented with current borrowers/utilities, how WIFIA loans are providing financial benefits to borrowers across the country, including over $5 billion in savings.

The Bellevue Utilities Capital Investment Plan is a seven-year $317M capital plan for the water, sewer, and stormwater utilities that is updated every two years. In the past four years, Bellevue Utilities has made great strides in developing a successful collaborative budget process that is structured with input from the Utilities Leadership Team, Engineering Division, Operations and Maintenance Division, the Finance Group, the community. This collaborative process has been significantly boosted with process improvements in project identification and scoping, project cost estimating, project prioritization, staff resource analysis, and community engagement In addition, asset management risk information has been used to budget for asset-based rehabilitation programs such as pipe rehabilitation and water main replacement programs.

Prior CIP budgets were successfully developed internally by engineering management; however, retirements and departures of management responsible for developing the CIP. and the challenge of finding supporting documentation, provided new opportunities for successor positions to develop the CIP. A collaborative budget framework was developed approximately 8-months prior to the Preliminary Budget deadline. The framework included the process improvements and the collaborative engagement of Utilities staff in distinct phases of the budgeting process, specifically Operations and Maintenance and Engineering staff in the project identification and prioritization, and the Engineering Project Management Group in the cost estimating elements of the budget. Over two budget cycles, the process improvements have become foundational and standardized in the budget process. The benefits of a collaborative budget process include the support and buy-in from staff at all levels of the organization; in addition, the transparency in the budget development process helps the entire utility and provides a sense of teamwork and collaboration across the Utilities Department. Although the collaborative budget process is a once every other year investment of time and energy from many staff and Bellevue Utilities Leadership Team, it results in a significantly improved capital plan that increases the department’s ability to support a high level of service to Bellevue Utilities Customers.