$189-Million Budget Plan Presented to Council : Finances: The city manager says the proposal has an ‘environmental’ theme, with programs to protect or enhance the area.

Santa Monica City Manager John Jalili is proposing a $189-million city budget for 1991-92. Although the amount is only a 2.7% increase over the current budget, several new programs can be implemented with a series of personnel moves and a shift in priorities, Jalili said.

Jalili also said that for the first time in several years, he is not proposing any new taxes, although on Tuesday night Councilman Ken Genser suggested raising the hotel bed tax from 12% to 13% to pay for more police officers.

Jalili said his budget proposal has an “environmental” theme, with several programs designed to protect or enhance the environment.

Among those programs are a continuation of the Baysaver water-conservation program; a new solid-waste management plan that attempts to reduce the amount of trash in landfills and that implements a new semi-automated refuse collection in single-family areas; a project to detect pollution in the Pico-Kenter storm drain, and a $500,000 project to create a more “bicycle-friendly” environment that would include new bike paths, public lockers and showers.

The City Council is holding a series of study sessions on the budget and is expected to adopt it after a public hearing June 25.

In his executive summary to the council, Jalili said his proposed budget maintains the general fund unreserved balance at a “prudent level” of $8.9 million, as a “hedge against a less rapid than anticipated recovery from the current recession, the substantial budgetary uncertainties at the federal and state levels of government . . . and unanticipated or emergency expenditures.”

Jalili said his budget assumes that the recession will bottom out this summer and that normal revenue growth patterns will resume by spring, 1992. He said his estimate on revenues is conservative, although several sources are expected to produce significant increases over the current fiscal year.

Among increases in revenue is an expected 22.6% increase in the so-called transient occupancy tax, more commonly known as a hotel bed tax. The city expects to collect $7.6 million, an increase of $1.4 million over this year, based on two new hotels (the Best Western Santa Monica Gateway Hotel and the Santa Monica Park Hyatt Hotel), the completion of the remodeling of the Miramar Sheraton Hotel and a 6% increase in room rates that is estimated by the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau.

As for expenditures, about $3.8 million is being recommended for 42 community service programs proposed by 25 agencies, including $639,158 for six Ocean Park Community Center programs, $123,673 for the Latino Resource Organization, $75,693 for the Westside Food Bank and $48,707 for Step Up On Second.

Of the $3.8 million for community programs, nearly one-third, or $1.26 million, is proposed for homeless programs. And for the first time, the city staff has proposed $90,000 for AIDS projects.

Another $1.3 million is proposed for community and neighborhood improvement projects, including $440,960 for Community Corp. of Santa Monica and $322,192 for the Pico Neighborhood Housing Trust Fund.

Jalili is also recommending increasing the city’s contribution to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District from $1.5 million to $2 million.