PORT ANGELES — City Hall is proposing a $130 million budget next year without any tax increases.
The budget, presented to the Port Angeles City Council on Tuesday, includes no new staff positions, except a grant-funded police officer position, and no cost-of-living raises for employees.
Yet it is about $6 million larger than the 2011 budget.
That is mainly due to ongoing capital projects and the deferral of two large projects from last year: the redevelopment of the waterfront and the construction of new infrastructure to eliminate sewage overflows.
Capital projects
The city is looking to spend $3 million on redeveloping the waterfront and about $10 million on starting construction on its sewage overflow elimination project next year.
The waterfront redevelopment work would be paid for mostly with the city’s economic development fund, but $500,000 from the general fund also would be contributed.
The sewage project, estimated at $40 million, is paid for by a monthly wastewater fee and low-interest state loans.
The city also would spend $4.2 million, through bonds and grants, on continuing to replace utility meters with computerized versions and starting its demand-response power project.
Demand response is a voluntary program the city is launching that would allow residents to have certain appliances, such as water heaters, turned off during periods of high energy use.
The project is made possible with the new “smart” meters.
Next year would be the second year in a row that the city didn’t raise property taxes.
City Finance Director Yvonne Ziomkowski said an increase would likely receive little support from the public.
But she said the city is still leaving special property tax levies, which could fund specific infrastructure projects, on the table.
“If we will say those taxes will be for this specific purpose — street maintenance, economic development —maybe the residents will support this,” she said.
No new levies are in the proposed budget.
The property tax of 14 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation used to build the Port Angeles Senior Center will expire next year.
That means the owner of a $200,000 home will pay $28 less in property taxes next year if the council does not increase its regular levy.
General fund
The general fund — which covers police, fire, streets and other essential services — would be $19.5 million.
Previously, the city was projecting a $900,000 general fund deficit.
The city cut away at that through decreasing overtime and part-time labor costs and expenditures for travel, training and supplies, Ziomkowski said.
But the general fund is still going to be about $1.6 million larger than last year.
That’s due to rising health care costs and about $1.2 million in general fund reserves being spent on several capital projects, including waterfront redevelopment, installation of a citywide wireless network and remodeling of the police station, Ziomkowski said.
The City Council will consider approval of the budget Dec. 6.
Public hearings will be held Nov. 1, Nov. 15 and Dec. 6 in council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
