Austin City Council discussed how and what to fund from about $15.8 million worth of projects and programs during a mid-year budget work session Jan. 29.

City Manager Marc Ott said though budget amendments are a regular act for council, the current consideration is a significant sum.

"Of course, in terms of amending the city budget, that's not an unusual occurrence," Ott said. "On any given Thursday, we amend the budget. What makes this really different, quite frankly, is simply the order of magnitude in this particular case."

The total budget, passed by the council in September, is $3.1 billion for fiscal year 2012–13 with about $740 million in the general fund. So far this fiscal year, council members have identified about $15.8 million in additional expenditures for issues including affordable housing, wildfire fuel mitigation, a pilot program to open certain public trails for 24-hour usage, and planning and development review staffing.

City staff found about $14.3 million in available funding the city could spend, with about $12.1 million for one-time expenditures and about $2.2 million for recurring, yearly expenditures. Ed Van Eenoo, budget officer for the city, said allocating the $14.3 million potentially would not require increasing the 2013–14 tax rate, but adding recurring expenditures to the budget adds to that pressure.

"It will put upward pressure on the need for a tax rate increase," Van Eenoo said. "Any time you increase the budget, the likelihood to need to increase taxes to pay for it all goes up."

Council members discussed about $18,000 in one-time funds and $170,000 in recurring funds in 2013 for additional staff for the Planning and Development Review Department to help alleviate a backlog in the permit applications.

Greg Guernsey, Planning and Development Review director, said the department has taken many different steps to try to expedite the permit process, including allowing certain applications for permits, if sealed by an architect or design professional, to be issued immediately if they meet certain requirements. He said an increase in applications and a loss of staff created the backlog, and there is enough demand to support additional employees.

Councilman Chris Riley asked for some kind of timeline from Guernsey about when the backlog might be cleared. Guernsey didn't give a specific time but said he believes there will be a significant improvement in six months

Councilman Mike Martinez said he sees the issue as a vicious cycle where the number of applications continues to increase as staff continue to process the requests. Martinez said he would support the Planning and Development Review Department, but he wasn't convinced that increasing staffing was the most efficient way to tackle the problem.

"I don't know how to explain adding the $188,000 in a mid-year funding request, I don't know how to explain to our constituents what it's going to do, how it's going to help," he said.

Moving forward, Mayor Lee Leffingwell said he feels the council should prioritize the programs and projects to identify which issues the city is required to fund.

"Some of this is already committed, like there's money in there for implementing civil service," Leffingwell said. "We have to do that. There's money in there for implementing the district plan. We have to do that. That should really be subtracted out of this wish and want list."

Council took no action at the work session.