The budget discussion at Monday’s meeting of the Maple Valley City Council showed the signs and strains of challenging economic times.

City staff has proposed a .75 utility tax increase to pay for program enhancements and staffing. The tax increase has created discussion during the past few meetings and Monday brought additional, pointed questions from council members.

Councilman Noel Gerken said he does not support the .75 increase. Gerken supported a 1 percent limit factor property tax increase, the maximum allowed by law, rather than a utility tax hike. Gerken noted property tax increases have to be approved each year by a majority of the council.

“Once we raise the utility tax it will be there forever,” Gerken said.

Gerken said he thought the Council would support the utility tax increase.

“It seems I’m the only one who doesn’t support it,” he added.

Councilman David Pilgrim suggested a sunset clause could be added, forcing the utility tax increase to be approved again at the end of the specified time period in the measure.

Gerken admitted a sunset clause is an option, but said once the utility tax was increased it would be difficult to roll back.

“Why do we need to raise taxes?” Gerken asked during a phone interview Tuesday. “I don’t think we should raise taxes for basic services. What I’m saying is we should cut back in other areas like recreation. We are expanding (recreation department) programs. Is that good governance?”

Gerken said the city should “hold the line on recreation programs” and let private sports and recreation groups “fill in the gaps.”

The councilman said he knows the city programs are popular, “but are they a good way to spend public money?”

At Monday’s meeting Councilwoman Linda Johnson said, “What I find so interesting is we have our budget and now we have to pay for it.”

Johnson said she did not see “the hard steps to winnow it down so we are not looking at going to the taxpayers for money.”

Pilgrim noted, “There are things we are questioning; $37,000 taken out of SWIM (surface water improvement and management) for community development. It makes me wonder again. Do we have enough work for all these positions? This is not going to get any easier year to year. How do we resolve this bottom line?”

One of the issues raised was whether a building inspector should be eliminated because of the decrease in building permits. The city has averaged 200 new home permits annually during the past 10 years, but the projection is for just 50 in 2010.

The city has two building inspectors on staff.

Gerken said he would like the staff to look at cutting a building inspector.

“I would liked to take a look at that and make some tough choices,” Gerken said.

City Manager David Johnston said the staff has looked both at operations and at job sharing.

Johnston said one plan was to move a building inspector to the surface water inspection program for the first half of 2010. At mid-year the staff would determine if a surface water management inspector should be hired, which would be funded from the storm water fund.

The city manager wrote in an e-mail, “The proposal that received Council consensus on Nov. 9 was to use the (building) inspectors as storm water systems inspectors for 400 to 500 hours next year to inventory and inspect the city’s storm water system.”

Johnston said at the meeting, “We are paying attention to our dollars and cents.”

The city manager noted Maple Valley is in a better position than neighboring cities because of frugal financial practices during the past decade.

Johnston cautioned the Council not to compare Maple Valley to “our friends in Covington. They overextended themselves in capital debt…. They have a legal obligation to meet the overextension of debt. That is not our philosophy.”

Johnston and Public Works Director Steve Clark noted the city is mandated by the state and federal government to comply with the surface water management act, which includes mapping and inspecting the system.

The city manager pointed out to the Council if a building inspector position is eliminated, a consultant may have to be hired to do the inspection.

“This is why it benefits our staff to do this cross training,” Clark said.

Gerken said he was “just not happy with the budget.”

Councilwoman Victoria Laise Jonas said she is not “keen on increasing staff with this economic downturn. Other cities are laying off, but we haven’t had to go there.”