If the county’s estimates hold, the city could see a bump of around $14 million in property tax values, an increase of .33 percent, according to the city’s strategic planning and budget director Keith Lee.

“Last Thursday I received preliminary numbers from Fulton County. Those numbers remain preliminary until they have been submitted to the tax commissioner,” Lee told city council members Monday night.

Last year, Roswell’s total property tax values were assessed at $4.504 billion, Lee said. For the upcoming year the county is projecting those to be $4.519 billion, he said.

Those figures include values for commercial as well as residential properties as well as for other property such as motor vehicles.

In preparing the city’s proposed budget for 2013, Lee said he had been judicious in his revenue estimates, plugging in a slight decrease for property taxes.

“As the city continues to be conservative in budgeting revenues, the budgeted decrease in property tax will accommodate appeals or adjustments that occur between the preliminary and approved digest,” he wrote in an email Tuesday morning.

Projected revenues for the city’s proposed 2013 general operating budget are $57.5 million. Base expenditures would be $52.6 million. Proposed new initiatives, maintenance capital and one time capital improvements would hike the number to $59.58 million.

Some of that additional money would allow department heads to give between a 1 percent and 4 percent merit pay increase to city employees, with the average raise working out to 2 percent, according to a staff presentation at Monday’s first reading and public hearing for the 2013 budget.

At the behest of Councilman Rich Dippolito, council members agreed that roughly $2.1 million proposed for one time capital projects should be severed from the overall budget and considered separately. The money is slated to come from the city’s reserves.

Dippolito also said funding related to a potential bond referendum for capital projects should be removed from the budget as council has made no decisions on those projects.

Councilman Jerry Orlans, the council liaison to the recreation and parks department, said he expects some changes in that area of the budget before the budget is passed.

“The general fund now has money going to the participation fee fund in recreation and parks,” he said. As discussions on raising some activity fees progress with the Recreation and Parks Commission, Orlans said all of that subsidy money may not be necessary.

The second reading and public hearing on the budget is May 30, at which time council will take its final vote on the document.