If a city committee approves city council members’ nearly $1 million in amendments proposed to the city’s operating budget, homeowners could see an immediate tax increase in the year to come.

Should the Board of Estimates pass the proposed amendments, the budget will add an extra $800,000, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said.

Although Mayor Dave Cieslewicz had asked city council members to limit the household tax increase to 5 percent, this figure allowed only $300,000 of possible alterations, Verveer said.

The proposals range from the expenditure of adding eight full time police officers to more minor additions such as the construction of ice rinks in Nakoma and Heritage Heights parks, Verveer said.

“I take the mayor’s sense of fiscal restraint in budgeting very seriously,” Verveer said. “But frankly, we’re our own branch of government, and the city council members are able to add amendments as they like.”

Verveer said many of the amendments directly affect University of Wisconsin students.

Since members of the city’s Building Inspector’s office are expected to retire, Verveer proposed raising the fee landlords of student housing must pay if the inspector is forced to return for multiple inspections from $50 to $75.

The amendment would eliminate a necessary hiring freeze while providing increased incentive to fill a necessary position quickly, he added.

Verveer also said he opposes the elimination of overtime for downtown cleanup during student apartment move-in for three weeks of August and September. The measure would save the city approximately $25,000, Verveer said.

“Without overtime, it would take three weeks instead of three days to return the streets to normal. It’s just unacceptable to junk up the downtown for that long,” Verveer said.

Another amendment would increase improvement grants to downtown business owners that provide funding for necessary aesthetic renovations.

Businesses such as Wando’s, Echo Tap, Stop and Shop Grocery and Amy’s Caf? have all received recent funding from the city for storefront renovations, Verveer said.

The most sizable amendment to the budget allows for the addition of eight full time positions for police officers at an expense of nearly $300,000.

Verveer said the call for more staffing in MPD is primarily based on the importance of public safety and the department’s intention to promote four officers to detective status.

Ald. Marsha Rummel, District 6, said one of the amendments she is supporting focuses on creating a recreational public space near the entrance of the downtown area for nearly $16,000.

“The area is well up from the street level, where the new train station will be constructed,” Rummel said. “The neighbors would appreciate a more usable space available to them.”

Another possibly controversial addition to the budget includes a proposal from Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, to provide health insurance to city council members.

Ald. Thuy Pham-Remmele, District 20, said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald she does not support the proposal, which Verveer and other alders previously said they support.

“I consider my service on the Madison Common Council almost voluntary activity,” Pham-Remmele said. “To demand ‘pension’ and ‘health insurance’ at the taxpayers’ expense during this economic downturn is unthinkable.”