The city of Opp approved its $8.82 million operating budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year at the Monday meeting of the city council.

The city’s budgeted revenues are considerably higher than last year’s $6.62 million budget, but the bulk of that increase is due to $750,000 in proceeds from a 2009 city industrial board bond issue. Also, the city’s budget was supplemented by $780,000 in federal stimulus funds for three downtown street revitalization projects.

The city is budgeting $8 million in expenditures for the 2009-10 fiscal year, a decrease of about $230,000 in expenses from the 2008-09 fiscal year.

“We’ve had to tighten our belts are we’re trying to be very conservative this year,” Opp Mayor H.D. Edgar said. “We had a hard year last year, and right now, we don’t feel like it will be much better in 2010.”

One major decrease in revenues is in proceeds of a 2007 bond issue. In the 2008-09 year, the city received $1.2 million in proceeds, but that has dropped to $980,000 in 2009-10.

The city is projecting slight increases in most of its tax revenue streams, including real property tax ($565,000, up from $562,500 in 2008-09), auto property tax ($117,000, up from $107,650) and sales tax ($2.07 million, up from $2.01 million).