By Lori Carlson, Editor 

With the budget plan currently on the table for Prior Lake, the average homeowner would pay about 96 cents more next year in city property taxes. But some City Council members said Tuesday that they would like to see a zero-percent increase – or even a decrease – on residents’ 2009 city tax bills.

In the second of their workshops on the budget, council members talked about the proposed $12.7 million budget for 2009, which for most taxpayers would result in a property-tax increase of one-tenth of 1 percent. The total proposed budget increase is 2.2 percent, or $276,500, over 2008’s budget.

Mayor Jack Haugen said Finance Director Ralph Teschner and city department heads came up with “a very conservative budget,” one he and other council members said they could support. But they added that they wouldn’t mind seeing a zero-percent increase by the time they have to set the maximum budget and levy amount on Sept. 15. (Final budget approval occurs in December.)

Councilman Warren Erickson asked whether his fellow council members want a zero-percent increase because it makes sense, or whether it is just for “publicity” reasons. He said the city’s staff already had come up with a conservative budget.

“You’re talking one-tenth of 1 percent. Why do we have to do the publicity thing of picking zero percent arbitrarily? Are we political bees, or are we here to do the business of the city?” Erickson asked.

But even a zero-percent tax increase, in the current market, might be tough for some residents, Councilman Ken Hedberg said. “Given the way the market is, I would really like to see a tax reduction,” he said.

Reasons for the 2.2-percent budget increase include street reconstruction and fuel costs, capital funding requirements such as a park matrix, and losses in non-tax revenue, such as building permit fees. Teschner said residential market values barely moved from 2008 to payable year 2009. However, he warned of a “big shift” from 2008 to 2009 for commercial/industrial properties, resulting in property-tax increases for businesses.

The city also is budgeting $81,600 to hire a full-time fire chief in 2009. The proposal needs council approval, and the city would have to advertise the job opening.

City Manager Frank Boyles said he’s been hearing about the need for a full-time chief for several years. Savage and Shakopee both already have full-time fire chiefs.

Haugen said having a full-time chief could make it easier to retain people in the position, saying it’s tough to balance career, family and the duties of a volunteer chief.

Steve Albrecht, director of public works, said the fire chief hiring actually could help the city’s maintenance department. He said a lot of the fire-call load falls on First Assistant Fire Chief Jim Larson, who’s also a city maintenance worker, because he works in Prior Lake and many other firefighters don’t.

“So we’re going to gain some [of Larson’s] hours back that we’re already paying for as a city,” Albrecht said.

The public works department plans to continue to bump up the street overlay budget incrementally “so we can turn over our streets and not fall behind,” Albrecht added.

He said besides personnel costs, the streets budget largely consists of money for oil products. The city did less street maintenance this year due to a 50-percent increase in oil product costs, he said.

Teschner, who will retire in October after leading the city’s budget for 31 years, reiterated the warning he gave council members during budget talks a year ago: “As you go into 2009-2010, you really need to control new programs. You’re going to have to say ‘no’ sometimes.”

 Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.