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Show 111 Daemon T fcp si Ra1oDDqoii By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL - A tentative general , , and capital improvements budget I'ling $5,139,419 has received i,minary approval from the Bountiful .jiy Council. UE PROPOSED budget is the largest rtrfor Bountiful, and the first time the -rbined budget has exceeded $5 million, iding to City Manager Grant P. Pe-'tien Pe-'tien who made the lengthy presenta-' presenta-' to the council last Wednesday night. Oilier special budgets, including the oier and power requests for next fiscal m wju be presented within the next g reeks, said Mr. Petersen. UE COUNCIL set Wednesday, June 20, ..public hearing on the general fund and -jjal improvements budgets. -Meanwhile," said Mr. Petersen, sancil members and mayor will have i- opportunity to review the budget and -ilt recommendations for changes. And i, certain there will be some of the lat- H EXPLAINED that the 1979-80 fiscal .:;a - which will go into effect on July .-is a balanced budget "with some very til strings." lehad a lot of input from department sis. council members, the mayor and -rs in putting this proposed budget isher," said Mr. Petersen. "I'm cer- everyone will agree, with all as-. iol the budget, and there will be -e changes before the final adoption sine public hearing." THE BUDGET is based on an 11-mill v-the same as the present fiscal year -bui proposed some limited cutting of :y personnel and tightening of city series, ser-ies, the city manager explained. Revenue for the proposed budget is lied on current assessed property iloaiion, and could be slightly higher n taxes are collected. THE PROPOSED budget is partially on assessed property valuation of 178.5 million, compared to slightly " re than 575.1 million for the current ical year. Revenue derived from this source will -Jim to $863,383. This compares to $826,383 for the current year, an increase of about 11 percent. MR. PETERSEN explained that nearly $225,000 had to be trimmed from the .budget based on department head requests. "That means that virtually every department got substantial cutbacks," he said. "Some departments, of course, had more cut from their requests than others, and for various reasons." HE SAID the police department will be asked to reduce its force by one man to make up a $15,000 deficit between what the department requested and what the tentative budget now shows. The sanitation department will be reduced by about five or six men with approval by the council to purchase new sanitation trucks that are one-man operated. THE TOTAL general fund budget is for $3,878,420 and the capital improvements fund is set at $1,260,999 - a combined budget of $5,139,419. The capital improvements budget is decreased by about $160,000 from the current capital improvements budget while the general fund budget is proposed to be about $427,000 more. "LIKE EVERYONE else, we (the city) are taking a terrific beating from inflation, infla-tion, it's just killing us," said Mr. Petersen. Peter-sen. "That, along with a reduction in court fees because of the change in the court system from city to circuit courts and a reduction in federal monies, we're going to be hurting." He added that more sales tax money than previous years has been added to the city's general fund instead of being used for capital improvements. "WE'D RATHER use this (sales tax money) for capital improvements, but we needed it badly for the general fund to come anywhere near having a balanced budget," the city manager noted. Although there will be no anticipated increase in the city's mill levy, there will be a 50 cents per month per family increase in the garbage collection fee, effective ef-fective July 1. Please Turn To Page 2 Bountiful Budget Tops $5 Million For First Time Continued From Front "WE HAD TO make up some deficit money and felt that this was the best way to do it," the city manager said. He emphasized, however, that the additional ad-ditional garbage collection fee will not be used to purchase the proposed new garbage gar-bage trucks, but has been earmarked for other services. "WE CONSIDERED an increase in property taxes (mill levy), park and recreation fees, and other sources of potential po-tential income and. felt that the garbage fee increase would be most equitable,' Mr. Petersen told the council. He said that inquiries by private garbage gar-bage haulers show that the best offer so far is S3. 25 cents per family per month -the same as will be charged Bountiful residents after the increase goes into affect. af-fect. "BUT THIS offer did not include a 50 cents per month BARD fee and there were limitations as to what garbage would be ;' collected by the private hauler," said Mr. : Petersen. In addition to the request to cut back one police officer, there was also a - reduced car-per-man proposal for the police department. A $10,000 request for additional remodeling of the old city hall for police facilities was also trimmed from the tentative budget. "IT MAY appear that we have taken the axe to the police department, and maybe we have in a way," said Mr. Petersen. "But there are reasons for doing so. "First, the police department has more total manpower than most departments and a cutback of one person may not be felt as severe as other smaller departments. depart-ments. Also capital improvements for the department during the past few years have been higher than most other departments." THE CITY fire department also got the axe for capital improvements, but there was no indication of reduction of person- Mr. Petersen also presented a proposal to reduce street lighting in the business area (Plat A) during the early-morning hours. "BY CUTTING back on street lighting in the downtown area we can save a lot of money as well as conserve power," he said. Asked why the downtown area was chosen as the "cutback" area, he replied: "BECAUSE IT would be easier to cut back half or even two out of three street lights in this area than it would any other area of the city." This idea was challenged by Police Chief Larry Higgins, who said "it would be a big mistake to implement such a proposal because street lighting, especially in the business area, is a big deterrent to crime." THE PROPOSED budget shows no funds for CETA projects for 1979-80. |