Provo Mayor Lewis Billings's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 has so far garnered generally good reviews, though the city Employees Association is staying mum for now about proposed cuts to employee benefits.

The mayor's budget includes several hits to city employees, including fewer bonuses, no cost-of-living allowances, some pay increases being halved, and an end to parity, the city's policy of equalizing contributions to retirements for employees across all departments. Tandy said he will take up the issue during the Municipal Council's public hearings on the budget, the first of which will be June 3.

Council Vice Chairman George Stewart said he thinks scaling back city employee benefits is a fair response to sluggish revenue projections for the upcoming year.

"I've always felt like you need to face the facts of your current reality, whether they're brutal facts or good facts," he said. "We're city employees. We rise and fall like any company employee would with the revenue coming into the company."

Mitigating financial shortfalls by spreading their effects over the city workforce is a better option than simply laying off a few people, Stewart said.

"I think we need to share the pain," he said. "I'm personally happy to have a job."

Easily the most popular part of Tuesday morning's presentation was the announcement that the city would sell its iProvo fiber-optic network for $40.6 million. The city has been losing about $2 million a year in sustaining the network.

"Hallelujah," responded Councilman Steve Turley immediately after the presentation. That sentiment was echoed by dozens of other city employees who applauded during the presentation.

The city also provided funding for several capital improvement projects, including $4.3 million to prepare the site for the proposed Southgate Commercial Center and $4.9 million to reconstruct the Reserve at East Bay's golf course around it. The new budget also allocates $1.5 million to add radar functionality at the Provo Municipal Airport.

The budget also beefs up Provo's graffiti response team, providing funding for the fire department to take part -- although no money was provided to increase the number of police officers on the street.

Billings said it was a priority during the budgeting process to keep taxes at their current levels. There are no proposed tax increases in this budget, but a handful of fees have been raised. Those include a hike in the Justice Court plea and abeyance fee from $22 to $62, and an increase in parking ticket amounts to either $25 or $30, depending on the infraction. It will also cost $25 more for adults to play sports through the Parks and Recreation Department, and admission to the Veterans Memorial Pool will cost $1 more.

Royce Van Tassell, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, said increasing fees effectively negates the benefit of leaving taxes alone.

"These are fee increases being made instead of a tax increase, but that doesn't make them any less of a tax increase," he said. "Where the fee is just raising revenue for the general fund that can be used for all services that the city is providing, these kinds of fee increases can have a more pronounced effect on the people who pay them. At least some of these fee increases mean the people who pay them will pay a disproportionate amount."