The Tooele City Council passed a tentative budget for just under $40 million last week.
For the eleventh year in a row, citizens face no new taxes, said Mayor Patrick Dunlavy.
The budget estimates $39,974,971 in expenses over the 2016-17 fiscal year. At the same time, city officials will have access to approximately $42 million to cover expenses.
Some of the city’s main sources of revenue include property taxes, sales taxes and franchise taxes, as well as fees for provided services.
However, some of the expenses listed are actually money the city plans to save, not spend, said city finance director Glenn Caldwell.
For example, the tentative budget appropriates $355,000 into the park capital projects fund, but the city won’t necessarily spend that much on park projects this year.
“I budgeted that just in case they want to do something,” Caldwell said. “If they want to get going on England Acres Park, this is where they’ll get it (the money) from.”
City officials contracted with a Salt Lake company in February to update a master plan for England Acres Park. At the time, Dunlavy said the city would pay for the master plan but may not have the funds to build the entire area this year.
The city is also saving for new buildings for its fire department and police force. It has saved $1.1 million for the buildings so far, Caldwell said.
On the other hand, the city does have some projects it intends to work on this year. In March, the city started collecting a monthly fee for its new street light utility fund. Money collected for the new fund can only be used to maintain, repair, upgrade, replace or add new street lights, according to city code.
Dunlavy has said the city plans to upgrade its entire street light system — which includes 1,440 public street lights — to make it more energy efficient, as well as add new lights to areas of town that don’t have any yet.
The city is currently doing a study on its street lights. Upgrading the entire system will likely take several years, but the $214,500 appropriated in the new budget will get the process started, Caldwell said.
The budget also appropriates money to hire a new police officer, Dunlavy said.
“I am asking for an additional police officer in this budget,” he said. “Other than that, it’s mostly the same as last year. We haven’t fleshed out as many capital projects, but that doesn’t mean we won’t do any capital projects.”
The budget takes $1.6 million from the city’s general fund balance, or rainy day fund, to balance general fund expenses.
“It is a balanced budget,” Dunlavy said.
A public hearing for the budget has been set for June 15 at 7 p.m. at Tooele City Hall, 90 N. Main Street. The public can review the budget in the city recorder’s office.
A public hearing for the budget of the city’s redevelopment agency will take place at the same time. Tooele City has budgeted $2.98 million for the RDA.