Officials Projecting Bright Budget Picture

Read their lips: No new taxes.

At least that’s the impression Coeur d’Alene officials are giving as they prepare to unveil the preliminary 1997-98 city budget. The City Council will receive the plan at its regular meeting next week.

Exact numbers won’t be available until council members receive their copies of the proposed budget. But the bottom line conforms to the council’s wishes that “the budget is at or near the current level so the average resident would pay no more in property taxes,” said John Austin, city finance director.

“As a staff, we are very proud of this budget. We met most of our objectives, which is not easy to do,” without an increase in spending, Austin said.

Last year the budget was about $32 million. This year, for the first time, the city will have about $300,000 from impact fees to spend. Developers pay the fee on new construction projects. But state law prohibits using that money for anything but streets, fire stations, police stations and other construction projects that will handle future growth.

The city will save some by phasing out the city personnel director’s job. Rob Beck, who has had the job for the past 16 years, suggested the change. He will leave Sept. 30 - the end of the fiscal year.

The city will save some of his $51,900 annual salary by transferring some of his work to other employees and hiring one person at a lower salary to do the rest of his job.

The council is expected to vote on the preliminary budget at a special meeting Aug. 11 or 12. Two workshops are scheduled for Aug. 21 and 26 at City Hall.

Public comment at the workshop sessions generally is limited to groups requesting money. That gives the council time to go through the budget “line item by line item,” Austin said.

The public hearing is set for Sept. 2 at City Hall.

, DataTimes