SULTAN — The city’s police department would hire a new patrol officer. The city would set aside more money to retain and recruit businesses.

These changes are included in the city’s proposed 2008 budget. The City Council is set to discuss and adopt the $10.5 million budget on Dec. 13.

The city’s general fund, which pays for basic services such as public safety, is expected to be $1.85 million next year. That’s down from $2.2 million in 2007.

“One lesson we learned is that we need to be very conservative in an estimate of revenue,” city administrator Deborah Knight said. “We’ve done that.”

Earlier this year, city officials learned that the general fund would be about $450,000 short, mainly because the city didn’t receive forecast revenues from building permit fees and had to pay unexpected bills for internal investigations at the police department, city officials said.

That forced the city to make a full-time employee start working part-time without benefits. The city also reduced its police force to five patrol officers and the chief. That’s down from eight patrol officers and the chief that the city had budgeted for 2007, Knight said.

Even though the general fund is getting smaller, the city plans to hire another officer in 2008, City Councilman Jim Flower said.

“The level of service is coming back,” Flower said.

The city also plans to set aside $6,500 in the next year’s general fund to recruit and retain businesses, Knight said. That’s up from $1,000 in 2007.

The city plans to use the money to create new pages at the city’s Web site to promote economic development and tourism in Sultan, Knight said.

Sultan counts on property and utility taxes to generate its revenue. City officials have called for recruiting businesses to Sultan to generate more sales tax revenue.

The state Supreme Court recently threw out a voter-approved initiative that put a 1 percent cap on annual property tax increases. That is unlikely to cause Sultan to raise the property tax beyond 1 percent, Knight said.

“I’m not hearing political support for raising property taxes,” she said.

The city needs to continue to operate with limited resources, Knight said.

Ongoing financial woes also prompted city officials to consider halting support for the Sultan public library. The city has a contract to pay about $90,000 to have the Sno-Isle Regional Library System run the library.

In March, the city plans to ask voters to approve a measure to annex the library into the library system’s district. If approved, residents will pay additional property taxes directly for the district to operate the library. That is expected to save the city money, officials said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com..

Budget talk

The Sultan City Council is set to discuss and adopt its 2008 budget at 7 p.m. on Dec. 13 at City Hall, 319 Main St. For more information, call the city at 360-793-2231.