DeKalb city officials and members of the Finance Advisory Board considered the possibility of a tax increase during Monday night’s budget workshop at city hall.

The DeKalb City Council held a special joint meeting with the Finance Advisory Board, preceding the regularly scheduled council meeting, to identify the city’s goals, objectives and priorities for the next fiscal year.

Although City Manager Mark Stevens said Friday he felt the council was opposed to a tax hike, many council members and the FAB supported such an increase as a means of balancing the 1987-88 budget without cutting city services.

Sixth Ward Alderman Steve Brody began the budget session by advocating an increase in taxes. He said the increase is necessary to implement programs that have been considered for several years but put on the back burner because of a shortage of manpower on city staff.

Fourth Ward Alderman Rita Tewksbury said a tax increase might be the only alternative. Tewksbury said she “absolutely will not go along wth any further reduction of services.”

Tewksbury said city staff already has been cut to “bare bones” and said the existing staff probably already is overburdened.

Stevens said Friday the city’s three basic options are to raise taxes, reduce services or use financing strategies that will enable the city to get through the next couple of years with a balanced budget.

e said the financing strategies under consideration represent short-term planning and are inconsistent with good fiscal policy. He said he is not an advocate of short-term financing strategies, but said because the council has been adamant there be no tax hike or reduction in services, he thought such plans were likely to be chosen as a means of balancing next year’s budget.

Stevens also favored the tax increase as an alternative to reducing services or employing short term financing strategies. He said the city is likely to experience a drop in revenue for the next fiscal year as it did this year.

This year, the city got revenue from unexpected sources which counterbalanced revenue lost from expected sources, Stevens said. He said the drop in revenue is expected to continue but the counterbalancing revenue is not.

First Ward Alderman Ron Matekaitis and 2nd Ward Alderman Mike Welsh also supported a tax increase. Welsh added that if the city is going to raise taxes it should be an increase which will keep the budget balanced over the next four or five years.