In an effort to plan ahead for reduced revenues, the Council has cut the budget this year by more than $800,000 to help ease the burden of rising property taxes.

This year, development was the main contributing factor in keeping the estimated tax rate increase low.

New business has helped reduce what homeowners would have paid if the city didn’t experience a building boom.

According to interim City Manager Robert Casey, $220 million of property value was added to the city’s $5.2 billion tax base this year due to new development or existing development paying the full tax obligation. That translated into the city gaining roughly $1 million more in revenue this year.

But in 2009, Casey predicted the property values to swell by only $100 million more. The city will not make the same amount of money off development next year as it did in 2007 and 2008.

The building boom will not continue at the same rate and revenues will reduce because there are fewer large development plans in the works now than there were a few years ago, officials said.

Council President Ken Rosenzweig likened the increase to a salary raise. The city got a big raise this year, he said, but it isn’t getting the same bonus next year.

The taxes levied on large, commercial development balances how much residential taxpayers are obligated to pay.