Mapleton cuts budget despite tax hike Tough times ? City will limit snow removal, eliminate overtime.

Donald W. Meyers

Nov. 18, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Ongoing budget problems are forcing Mapleton to eliminate overtime and go easier on the salt.

Mayor Laurel Brady said the city will limit its "bare pavement" snow removal policy to just intersections and critical roads due to a rising price of road salt and budget cuts the city had to make to heave its budget into balance.

Other cost-cutting measures include eliminating overtime, implementing a hiring freeze and requiring employees to pay 10 percent of the cost of their health benefits.

"We believe this is enough," Brady said Monday.

The changes come four months after the city approved a 54-percent tax increase and trimmed $100,000 from its budget for legal fees. But that was not enough to offset a flat housing market -- which deprived Mapleton of fees for building permits and inspections along with property taxes from newly developed property ?-- that depressed city revenues.

City Administrator Robert Bradshaw said Mapleton doesn't have the luxury of a retail base that could offset a shortfall in property taxes. The only other option was to make additional budget cuts.

"We looked at every item in the budget, and asked is it legally committed, and is it legally required," Bradshaw said. And what wasn't was cut.

Brady said some personnel cuts were made in the building inspection department since Mapleton is seeing less construction. But she said letting people go or reducing hours does not mean they didn't do a good job; it's

a sign of how rough the economy has gotten.

Mapleton isn't alone.

Other Utah cities are tightening their belts as the economy dries up sales and property tax money. In Provo, the city has asked its department heads to consider reducing their departments, and the city's holding back money from future construction projects as a cushion to soften a sales tax shortfall.

And Utah County officials are contemplating a tax increase even after asking department heads to trim their budgets.

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