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Show City Council funds budget options while holding expenditures down by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer Faced with a diving tax collection rate, the Park City Council swung its budgetary ax last week to balance its proposed $8.8 million Operating Budget without raising the Resort Cities Sales Tax. The council took a stern look at all items over and above last year's budget, cutting many proposals and funding only those it found necessary. neces-sary. With the exception of a two mill property tax increase to fund the ..uinicipality's parks, the council did not raise taxes. Other than the parks tax increase, the council cut overall taxes by four tenths of one mill, which is equivalent to about $40,000. A public hearing is scheduled on the 1985-86 Operating Budget today, June 6, at 5 p.m. in the Marsac Municipal Building. Adoption of the budget is slated for June 13. Among the budgetary options the council was willing to fund is money for discretionary raises for municipal employees. Last year, the council allocated $46,000 for pay raises or the equivalent of eight percent raises to all employees. The municipality used only funds that were six percent of employees salaries last year. The funds are not intended for across-the-board raises. City Councilman Jim Doilney proposed doing away with all raises, citing economic difficulties in the private sector. Park City Police Chief Frank Bell, however, convinced the council to fund raises at the rate it did last year. The council decided to fund one half of Transportation Director Kae Draper's request for $60,000 for benefits which would allow her to add eight full-time drivers to her staff. In addition, the council will fund bus service to Silver Lake on an hourly basis during ski season. Those funds are equivalent to $34,000. The council may increase service pending a matching grant from Deer Valley to the municipality. The operation of the Main Street Trolley was also funded between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. One of the few increases in personnel made by the council was the addition of two full-time employees for the Parks Department. Depart-ment. Citing increases in Parks land, the council set aside $35,000 for the positions. Additional funding for personnel was also granted to the Police Department. De-partment. The council allocated funds for an additional investigator and a traffic control officer to patrol the town lift during ski season. ' - The council funded the Chamber Bureau in the amount of $125,000. The allocation was $32,000 less than the organization had requested. The Chamber Bureau received $125,000 from the city last year. The Park City Library received $10,500 so that one of its part-time employees could become full time. The council only gave in to the request after substantial lobbying from librarian Pat Montgomery. Recreation Department Director Steve Haugen was denied an increase in personnel following a two-week discussion with the council. coun-cil. The city council decreased its base snow-removal budget by $30,000. However, the body allocated $6,200 each for increased snow removal in Swede Alley and on Royal Street. The Streets Department was also funded in the amount of $68,000 for an additional Unimog snow plow. The Public W orks Department was granted $10,000 for a budgetary : option for asphalt testing. The funds are designed to make sure the city . gets what it pays for in street construction. The council also allocated $6,000 for a part-time employee at the city's museum in old City Hall. And KPCW radio received a grant of $8,732. The options the council will fund total $396,092. |