New buildings, new infrastructure and new employees are the highlights of a Spanish Fork's budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a tentative budget of just more than $50 million for the fiscal year 2008. After midyear adjustments, that budget could end up being the largest in Spanish Fork history.

"In a growing time, you'll rarely see the budget go backwards," said assistant city manager Seth Perrins.

Like most municipalities, Spanish Fork adjusts its budget midway through the fiscal year to account for unexpected expenses and other issues.

Perrins said Spanish Fork grew by about 4,000 people in the past year, and the 2008 budget reflects that growth in a variety of ways. The city added a handful of new positions to its payroll, including two employees at the electric department, two in parks and recreation, one in the utilities department and two police officers.

"We're not growing as fast as some cities, but the rate at which we're growing, there's certainly a lot of new demands, a lot of parks, a lot of programs," Perrins said.

Largely as a result of those new residents, sales and property taxes are up as well. The city is budgeting for $1.3 million in property taxes for the upcoming fiscal year, a jump of about $200,000, and $4.1 million in sales tax revenue, an increase of more than half a million dollars. Perrins said those numbers were conservative estimates.

Perrins said the sales tax revenues are due to Spanish Fork's natural growth. Those revenues could be higher for the upcoming fiscal year depending on whether any new businesses open their doors in that time. The city is expecting numerous businesses to come in over the next couple of years, such as the planned commercial development at North Park, but none of those are expected to open during the next fiscal year.

"There are a number of development projects that have the potential to create a lot more sales tax for us, but we don't anticipate seeing those until the next fiscal year," Perrins said.

Much of that revenue will go toward capital improvements. The city is budgeting $185,000 to install new lighting towers at Dons' Field, $100,000 for sidewalk replacement and $160,000 to redo the parking lot at the fire department.

General fund expenditures for the fiscal year 2008 are budgeted at $14.2 million, up from last year's starting number of about $12.5 million. Revisions to the budget later brought the 2007 number up to about $15.6 million.

The largest expenditures in the budget are for massive projects, such as the new police and courts building, which are being paid for with bonds. That project will be paid for with $18 million in bond money, half of which will be covered by the state.

Another $4 million in bond money will go to economic development at North Park, which will be relocated to make room for commercial development.

"That park's going to be one of the prettiest parks in the county," said Mayor Joe Thomas.

Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.