IF City Council trying to avoid raising taxes

The proposed Idaho Falls budget is nearly $3 million over the amount of funds available. The City Council met Wednesday for the second day in a row to make changes to the spending plan, starting with spending less.

“They’ve been whittling away trying to get where we are now, so additional cost cutting and perhaps part of the solution would be spending some of savings…My personal hope is that we will not raise taxes. That we will hold, yet again, for the fifth year, hold taxes constant,” -said council member Kenneth Taylor.

The council will determine which departments might be cut down, including revisiting recent discussion of overtime for firefighters.

For the first time ever, City Council meetings are streaming live online at its website,http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/city/live-stream.html.