Slidell Mayor Ben Morris submitted a balanced $47.9 million budget for fiscal year 2009 at a special City Council meeting Monday night.

The budget is a 20 percent increase over the $40 million budget for 2008.

The budget will get public input at the council’s regular meeting on April 22. The council has until the first week in June to add, delete, or create its own budget, and the mayor has to sign the budget by June 30. In his presentation Monday, Morris said, if approved, $32.6 million would go to operations, $4.3 million for debt service, $5.2 million for capital outlay and reserves and $5.8 million for recovery efforts.

Over half the budget will be funded by sales tax revenue, Morris said.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the city has enjoyed a dramatic increase in sales tax due to recovery efforts. That rise has decreased since 2006 from $23.6 million to $21 million in 2008.

However, Morris said even with the decrease sales tax revenue has increased by 15 percent over pre-Katrina levels. As the city returns to normal, the administration expects sales tax revenue to increase at an annual rate of 5 percent. He said the city usually has a conservative estimate of revenue, and, as a result, sales tax revenue may increase.

Another revenue stream is property taxes, which account for 10 percent of the budget. An ordinance submitted Monday night by the mayor asks for a 30.67 millage rate for fiscal year 2009, a 1 percent decrease from 2008. That may change, though, because the state has mandated a reassessment of all property. With more properties coming back onto the tax rolls after the hurricane, there may be more revenue incurred from property taxes. However, Morris said the reassessment has not been factored into the 2009 budget.

The city will have a new revenue stream this year thanks to Textron Marine and Land, which is leasing the DISA building on Gause Boulevard. Morris said the city will get $2.1 million in rent and utility charge backs from Textron. Of that, $1.1 would go for operating expenses. Morris proposes the remaining $1 million be used for one-time only capital projects.

Capital expenditures, can be funded from the sales tax, DISA building and utility funds that total $4.8 million. The sales tax fund, which currently totals $2.5 million, would go to city machinery and equipment replacement at $209,000. The fund would also pay out $360,000 to purchase the University of New Orleans building behind the Slidell City Hall in order to build the new municipal building, which will cost $5.8 million. FEMA will put up $2.9 million for the construction, and insurance will pay $400,000.

The police department would get $700,000 from the sales tax fund for new cars, communications equipment, training gear, Tasers and a police technology plan.

The city’s drainage system would get $400,000 for maintenance, $113,000 would go to repairing the radio tower and $140,000 for a new excavator.

Money from the $948,000 DISA building fund would go to concrete and asphalt street maintenance and an energy management system for the city.

The utility fund has $1.4 million, and part of that would go to upgrading lift stations in the sewer system and maintenance and upgrade of the sewer and water systems.

The biggest expenditure of the budget — 47 percent — is $22.3 million for city salaries and benefits.

Another ordinance submitted Tuesday asks for a 3.9 percent salary increase for classified employees, a 4 percent increase for unclassified employees and a 3.9 percent for elected officials, which means the mayor’s salary would go up to $108,297 and the chief of police’s salary would increase to $97,467.

The council also agreed to look at a proposed ordinance that creates a cooperative endeavor agreement between the city and the developers of the Summit Fremaux project set to begin in late April.

A public hearing on the budget, salary increases and the Summit Fremaux agreement will be held at the April 22 City Council meeting.