“Until growth starts picking up again, it’s tight,” Interim City Administrator Matt Podhradsky told the Chaska City Council Monday night.

Podhradsky gave the council its first glimpse at the five-year budget forecast during a work session. The goals of the budget were to maintain service levels and the tax rate while fully funding replacement programs. New programs would be considered only after those goals were accomplished.

Podhradsky said that the city was facing a 1.6 percent decrease in market values for 2008, but was hopeful for the years ahead. Some 190 new housing units are on the docket for this year, with the annual rate rising to 250 by 2013.

Podhradsky estimated that they would see a 3.5 percent increase in personnel costs and a 2 percent increase in operating costs. The city will add a new police officer each in 2010 and 2012, new public works employees in 2010 and 2013 and a new budget analyst in 2009.

The street reconstruction program costs will rise to $300,000, up from $50,000 this year. The program had been scaled back in recent years to offset lost revenue from a decrease in building permits.

Building permits are expected to increase slightly, Podhradsky said. The city will also look in increase its franchise fee by 3 percent annually.

Next month, the council will use budget information to set its annual tax levy.

-Mollee Francisco, staff writer