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Show Cooofy residents face hike in recreation fee? by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer The Park City Council formally unveiled a $10 million 1985-86 Operating Budget June 6 which would raise resident property taxes and increase recreation user fees for non-residents. The public hearing to discuss the budget drew only a handful of residents other than city employees. Park City Manager Arlene Loble outlined the proposal which is broken down into a $2.3-million Capital Improvements Budget and an $8.6-million Operating Budget. The Capital Improvements Budget was adopted in April. According to the proposal which is set for adoption today, June 13, 26 percent of expected revenues will come from property taxes. The council is expected to set its mill levy at 17.19 mills which will bring $1.83 million to the city. That represents an increase of 1.62 mills over last year. During the budget presentation, Loble projected expenditures of $148 for each Park City taxpayer for recreation and library services. She proposed a new fee structure which would require county residents to pay $85 for a recreation pass and $45 for family library passes, bringing user fees to $130. Currently, the county only pays $6,300 of the $450,000 recreation and library program. The new fee structure would bring an estimated $108,000 to the city from county residents. The new fee schedule was prompted by a request from Recreation Director Steve Haugen for additional manpower. The council denied Haugen's request, unwilling to spend more for programs in which one-third to one-half one-half of the participants are county residents. Park City resident Tommy Tanzer, a teacher for the Park City School District, asked the council to keep expanding its recreation programs. He said the city's Recreation Department has taken a leadership role in organizing many activities for school children. In an earlier budget session, the council advised Haugen that recreation programs would have to be cut this year. In another budget session the council decided it would not raise the Resort Cities Sales Tax. The city now levies three-quarters of a possible one percent tax. attached to retail sales. That tax will bring about $700,000 to the city this year. Overall, sales taxes are expected to bring $2.2 million to the municipality in the coming year, the equivalent of 30 percent of the operating budget. Water fees of various types are projected to account for 15.4 percent of the city's budget. Those fees, charges and rentals add up to about $1.2 million. Other major income sources for the city were listed as cash and Interest, 8.4 percent, and building and planning fees, 6.6 percent. Among city expenditures, public works is listed to take the largest share, 18.3 percent, or about $1.5 million. The municipal water system is expected to cost over $1 million during the upcoming year, 14.4 percent of the budget. Leisure services, which includes operation of the library, parks and cemetery, is budgeted for about $700,000. Other major expenditures include about 12 percent each for public safety and general government. Those sums are equal to about $900,000 each. Other chunks of the budget will go to community development, 10 percent; transportation, 9.6 percent; and debt service, 8 percent. Of all expenditures, about 42 percent per-cent will be salaries, according to the proposal. Loble said the proportion is considerably smaller than most towns of Park City's size, which she said average about 50 percent. The budget calls for the addition of two full-time parks employees, a new full-time mechanic and one more police investigator. The positions will cost the city a total of $93,860. Positions being changed from part-time to full time will cost an additional $40,000. Those include four bus drivers and one librarian. Deer Valley Executive Vice President Presi-dent John Miiller told the council he did not favor increases in municipal employees at this time with the exception of the mechanic. Miiller's comments came as part of a four-page prepared response to the city's 200-page budget ( see A-7 ) . |