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The goose that laid Marco Island’s golden egg has lost much of its luster.

Gone are the days of double-digit increases in property values that filled city coffers with tax funds. There is a nearly double-digit drop in island property values this year amid continuing pressure from state legislators to cut tax rates.

And so, with budget season underway, Marco city officials have cooked up a smorgasbord of alternative revenue sources.

On the table for next fiscal year is a special assessment for fire services, a stormwater utility fee and a charge on the city’s water and wastewater plant. Future suggestions include a bond issue to pay for park improvements, a community redevelopment agency in the city’s town center and the granddaddy of them all: a city takeover of electric services.

At Monday’s all-day budget meeting, council mixed and matched from the ideas that interested them. The stormwater utility and fire assessment received support as did closer looks at all three of the future options. The charge on the water and wastewater plant was rejected.

All these ideas, councilors and city staff said, are designed to reduce the city’s reliance on the property tax, which accounts for 72 percent of the current year’s budget.

“Hopefully, (residents) can appreciate the need for stability,” City Council Chairman Bill Trotter said before Monday’s meeting. “Just because property taxes go down, doesn’t mean the need for fire services goes down.”

Many other local governments are looking for alternatives to the property tax, and those alternatives are taking the form of assessments or user fees for services, experts said.

“There’s a plethora of these types of options around the state,” said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.

Compared to the city of Naples and Collier County, Marco’s government is the most aggressive in examining property tax alternatives. At this point, neither Naples nor the county has any similar proposals on next year’s budget. But Naples City Manager Bill Moss — who previously held that job on Marco — said he hasn’t ruled out suggesting the city examine a fire assessment in the future.

“We have a very serious shortfall in Naples, too,” Moss said.

Also, Naples and the county’s budgets are already more diversified than Marco’s, with property taxes making up 45 percent of general fund revenue in Naples and 68 percent in the county.

The move from taxes to fee-based revenue sources typically gets less resistance from taxpayers across the state, MacManus said. That’s because the public knows what services it is receiving for its dollar. But that doesn’t mean taxpayers support fees.

“There’s definitely a scramble to find new revenue sources, but people are expecting (elected officials) to tighten their pocketbooks as well,” she said.

So the concern from taxpayers becomes not that governments are looking for alternative revenue sources, but rather additional revenue sources.

Marco Island resident Bill McMullan, who has become a frequent agitator on all things tax related on the island, said Marco’s budget strikes him as more of the latter.

“I was taken aback when I looked at the agenda,” McMullan said before Monday’s meeting. “It was all, ‘How do we invent more money?’ ”

Council decisions made Monday indicate support for creating additional city revenue. Council directed staff to develop three options involving increased property taxes, instituting the fire assessment or some combination of the two to fund a spending increase at the maximum allowable rate under the city charter. The establishment of a stormwater utility — now removed from the general fund — will further increase revenue by $800,000 to $1 million next year, according to a staff report.

Taken together, the two moves will allow for an approximately 10 percent increase in city spending over this year’s general fund.

Council will again address its budget during an all-day meeting on August 4.