Salt Lake has $1.3 million extra to spend

Salt Lake City has an extra $1.3 million to spend.

Now city leaders have to figure out what to buy with the bonus cash — a result of greater-than-expected property tax, sales tax and building permit revenues.

There's a large potential shopping list. The figure is just about what the city needs to complete Mayor Rocky Anderson's proposed 300 South medians. It also would almost make up the $1.6 million in Redevelopment Agency funds the city decided to use for the final $8 million portion of its Salt Palace Convention Center expansion. Or the City Council could use the money to mitigate Anderson's proposed $1.4 million tax increase for more police officers.

As yet, Anderson's administration has not developed a plan to spend the cash, Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart said Tuesday.

"That's a new number to us," Fluhart said of the surplus. "It's obviously good news."

Council members have some ideas, but council chairman Dale Lambert said a decision on the extra cash probably will not come until after the council has finalized its 2005-06 budget.

"Our budget numbers have been so flat for the last few years, it's nice to see a modest increase in our budget," Lambert said.

There are also other ways the city may need to spend the money — like saving it for pending vacation and sick time payouts or saving it for fleet replacement.

"There are some pending deficits we have to look at," Councilman Carlton Christensen said.

Councilman Eric Jergensen said he would like to explore whether the extra cash could fund police cars for the potential new officers. That way, Jergensen said, the a proposed tax increase may not have to be so large.

The City Council did make some budget decisions Tuesday. The council gave the police department $106,000 to cover its expenses associated with the Lori Hacking investigation. The police incurred $47,000 in overtime, had a $41,600 bill from the Salt Lake Valley Solid Waste Facility and had "other investigative related expenses" of $16,795.

The council also declined to waive $42,000 in fees to Salt Lake County, which had asked for the waiver in construction costs related to the Salt Palace Convention Center expansion.Council members said they are already contributing $8 million to the project and didn't want to contribute any more.

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