A proposed Austin city tax increase for homeowners could amount to about $10 per year on an average $102,000 house, but council members would like to lower it more.

Preliminary discussion of the city’s 2010 budget Monday night largely focused on the proposed tax levy increase, and council members generally agreed they’d like to lower that number.

The proposed 4.59 percent increase would bring in an additional $170,000 based on the 2009 levy and, along with a number of discussed budget cuts, would be a way for Austin to deal with $876,833 that has been unallotted by Gov. Tim Pawlenty for 2010.

However, the city has some time to lower the increase if officials choose — though a maximum levy would have to be set by Sept. 15, the council could still drop the number by the end of the year.

And it seems as if lowering the proposed levy even before Sept. 15 is a city council priority.

Councilman Jeff Austin said he wouldn’t want to see the increase be any higher, and would ideally like to lower that figure.

He said now is the time to take a serious look at public contracts and wages to see what kinds of savings could be found.

This could include a furlough program, like the voluntary one enacted for the end of 2009, or possibly wage freezes, though many changes would require the city to enter arbitration with city workers on current contracts.

Councilman Steve King said he sees potential savings if cuts are made from a travel and conference budget.

He cited an administrative section of the budget that has more than $11,000 budgeted for items like travel, conferences and memberships, such as with the Rotary Club.

King said instead of budgeting all this money in, the city could simply reimburse people who do travel and not waste money on those who don’t. He said membership in social clubs could all be done privately.

Also garnering some discussion was the possible closure of Riverside or Packer arena. Though the council did not previously vote on including a closure in their list of cuts, there could be future discussion on doing that or finding a way to generate more revenue when the arenas don’t have ice.

The council will continue looking at these and other possibilities at the next work session on Aug. 17, and a number of council members agreed that it would be helpful to see a detailed list of suggestions from city workers.

A special meeting was held July 13 to gather input from city workers.

Mayor Tom Stiehm also reminded the council that the proposed budget numbers are far from final.

“I think this council is determined to get a 0 (percent tax levy increase) or as close as we can,” he said.