The San Juan County Council has scheduled a special council session for Wednesday, July 22 to consider putting a proposal to increase the county’s property tax on the Nov. ballot. At the special meeting, further budget cuts and the particulars of a 2010 budget without a levy increase will be discussed.

Voter approval is needed for a lid lift, if the levy is set so that total revenues from taxes on existing properties increase by more than one percent.

Government costs have increased by 4 percent each year over the past several years. Though the increases have been partially offset by new property taxes, the county financial condition is in a state of “controlled descent,” according to County Administrator Pete Rose.

At the recent council session, County Auditor Milene Henley characterized the County revenue picture at the end of the second quarter as “a little worse than it was three months ago.” She has said that revenue projections for the year will be $1 million under the original 2009 budget projections. This is an improvement on her original estimate that there could be a shortfall of up to $2 million based on first quarter data.

The council has reduced the operating budget for the second half of the year by nearly 15 percent. Last week they eliminated the community development and planning director position.

The council will look at additional cuts to the budget in September. Rose has said that if new revenue is not found some popular programs would see drastic reductions.

“We are running out of areas to drop service levels,” Rose said. “For discretionary spending on local services we are probably down to senior services and agricultural extension programs, including 4-H. As a whole, the core administrative and financial services departments are probably already at or below the level of sustainability.”

The council must decide if they will take the levy lid-lift to the public by August 11, and legal advertising for public hearings would have to be placed before the end of next week according to state law.

“Given the current economic climate, how excited are people going to be about something like this?” District 6 Council Member Bob Myhr said.