As a budget balancing strategy beginning in 2009, the City of Des Moines approved Nov. 13 a surface water management utility tax.

The tax is expected to bring in almost $125,000 in revenues for the city. Even with the utility tax, the Des Moines is still struggling to come up with another $339,499 to balance next year's budget.

The utility tax is a six percent tax on the city's surface water management utility. The utility currently is $11.55 a month for every household in Des Moines. The tax would add an additional $0.69 a month to the utility.

The final vote was 4-2 with Mayor Pro-tem Dan Sherman not in attendance, at the meeting.

Mayor Bob Sheckler and council members Susan White, Ed Pina and Carmen Scott voted for the utility tax. Councilmen Scott Thomasson and Dave Kaplan voting against.

"I have no problem putting a utility tax on a private utility, but when it is a utility that the city is providing or another public entity is providing I have problems with that," Kaplan said.

Thomasson said all of the budget strategies are one-time strategies that don't fix the underlying problem.

"If this was the last thing to do to fix it, I might be in support of it," Thomasson said.

Scott said she wanted to ask the community to help shoulder the burden of the city's financial problems.

She said in order to keep from cutting essential services every department has taken cuts.

But with all the cuts that have been made and even with this new tax, Des Moines is still over $300,000 short of breaking even.

City Manager Tony Piasecki told the council members he has talked with employees about what and how much they would be willing to sacrifice to help balance the budget.

He said he would come back with specifics on what the employees are willing to do at the next city council meeting.

Another budget balancing idea that was revisited at the council meeting was turning off streetlights. Lights on major roads and arteries would remain on undimmed, but residential areas would either see street lighting reduced or turned off.

Council members cited safety as a main concern and reason to keep them on. However if by the next council meeting there is still budget gap, streetlights will likely be looked at again.

The council gave approval for the pre-sale of bonds to finance repairs at the marina and for street improvements. The bonds for the marina improvements will be for over $6 million and the bonds for transportation will be for over $3.5 million.

Barring interest rates for the bonds rising over 5.1 percent, the bonds will be approved next week at the city council meeting.