To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Back in April, city staff projected an $11 million to $28 million deficit, but things looked much better on Wednesday.

The proposed budget includes funding for 48 new police officers, 10 new firefighters and 30 new paramedics. It also adds an extra $500,000 for library materials.

"I think the budget puts the focus on the things that a city really needs to do. Public safety, taking care of public works, libraries, parks, that kind of thing. The meat and potatoes of what a city should be doing," Mayor Lee Leffingwell said.

The proposed budget also includes a 3 percent raise for city employees covered by labor contracts and a 2.5 percent raise for all other city workers.

The budget also calls for some fee increases.

The typical rate payer would spend $9.31 more on monthly fees, which includes an increase of $4.37 each month for property tax on the median home.

This is the first time since 2006 that city staff has not proposed the rollback tax rate, which is as high as the city can raise the property tax rate in a given year without voter approval.

"We need to exert a lot of discipline as a council to make sure that we don't take advantage of the fact that it's legally permissible to increase property taxes, to increase those property taxes and start spending money that we don't really need to spend," Council member Bill Spelman said.

Public hearings on the budget will take place Aug. 19 and Aug. 26, before the budget is finalized in September.