Options to boost revenue included raising taxes for overnight hotel visitors, special assessment districts, introducing a business license tax, locking in the so-called Utility User Tax to include new technology and other measures.
Any of the options heard Tuesday would eventually need City Council approval to be placed on the April ballot, and then require either a simple majority or a two-thirds vote to pass, depending on the type of tax.
The session was called for in June after the City Council closed a $9.9-million budget shortfall, but since then, the economic landscape has changed drastically.
The meltdown on Wall Street and resulting credit freeze has further crippled state coffers after they were depleted during a protracted budget process, and rising inflation has thinned tax revenue to the city, setting the stage for an even uglier city budget process next year unless additional revenue sources can be found, city officials said.
The discussion drew out the same group of City Hall critics who in June railed against the city’s fiscal budget as too weighed down with bloated city salaries and infrastructure costs.
Some of them criticized the special tax options as yet another burden on residents to help pay for unchecked city employee union influence on the city budget — a familiar argument from June, when the City Council was forced to cut 5% from nearly every department, including police and fire.
Councilman Dave Weaver called the criticisms “absolutely ridiculous,” noting that there was no way for anyone to predict in June the financial turmoil local governments would be facing today.
“All projections were positive,” he said.
