The proposed El Paso city budget for fiscal 2010 starting Sept. 1 shows a $3.6 million or 1.13 percent decrease in spending from last year’s $315.8 million in local taxes, fines and fees.

The budget document, filed by the city manager’s office with the municipal clerk’s office late Tuesday afternoon, represents a starting point for City Council and the public and will be subject to change between now and late August.

The proposed tax rate of 62.9 cents per $100 valuation would mean a $629 tax bill on a home taxed at $100,000 after exemptions, which is $10 over the effective tax rate that city officials want to achieve.

The current tax rate is 63.3 cents per $100 valuation, which produced a $633 city tax bill on a home with taxable value of $100,000 after homestead and any other exemptions.

While tax revenues on new and existing property would increase $3.6 million in fiscal 2010, sales taxes are projected to drop $1.3 million or 1.8 percent. Municipal court fines are projected at $1.8 million below last year.

Under the proposed budget, nonuniformed city employees would not see a pay raise until the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. The police and fire unions are being asked to delay their negotiated contract pay raises for four months.

The recommended number of full-time city employees recommended for the year is 6,143, a decrease of 86. Of the 86 positions recommended for elimination, 17 are currently filled.

Among the red flags in the budget is the projected need to increase solid waste management fees to cover citywide recycling and other expenses by $4 million a year going forward.

“A rate increase will be necessary unless alternative revenue enhancements are achieved or programs (and) services are reduced and/or eliminated,” Wilson’s budget message states.

Among the possible revenue increases mentioned are the controversial imposition of franchise fees on all commercial trash hauling companies or “flow control,” which would require all haulers to use the city’s landfills.

Currently, many or most commercial haulers use the privately owned Camino Real Landfill in Sunland Park, N.M.

Aware of that looming issue, officials of Camino Real Landfill, its sister hauling company, El Paso Disposal, and their corporate parent, Waste Connections Inc., contributed heavily to losing candidates in the recent city elections in an effort to prevent the imposition of franchise fees or flow control.

A consulting company estimated that requiring private haulers to use the city’s landfills would generate $3.5 million to $4 million more a year. It would take a $2 monthly increase in the city’s solid waste fees, billed thought the Public Service Board, to raise $4 million a year.

The proposed budget for all accounts, which include the PSB, airport and grant funds, is $673.3 million, a decrease of $16.1 million or 2.3 percent.

Wilson notes that since 2005, when the first of several 2000 Quality of Life bond projects began operation, the city’s operating and maintenance budget has grown 4 percent or $10 million a year to pay for those operations.

“We have added three new fire stations, two new branch libraries and one replacement branch library, doubled the size of the main library, three new recreation facilities and 105 acres of new park land,” she said. “We have also built and opened a new Museum of History and the renovated Plaza Theatre.

“In the proposed budget, we expect two new, major recreation facilities to complete construction, as well as the 10-acre expansion to the El Paso Zoo.”

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30, or 630-6622.