Claremont’s financial projections have taken a positive shift.

The city originally estimated a possible $2.3 million deficit by 2015-2016 if expenditures and revenue remain the same. New numbers presented by City Manager Jeff Parker at Tuesday night’s city council meeting revealed instead a $570,000 deficit.

The changes are largely a result of unanticipated cost savings in insurance premiums and the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS).

“Our sales tax is slightly up, our property tax is up…our revenue streams are not as good as I would like them, but they are going forward in pretty good shape,” Mr. Parker said at the Tuesday meeting. “If we get a few of these operations that we are looking for in our economic development I think I can safely say to the council that we are on the right track to not worry about having a deficit in year 5.”

Mr. Parker says he expects the half-million figure to continue to be reduced with revenue collected from new commercial development like Super King Market.

“One of the things that’s not even calculated in [the report] is there’s a projection that Super King alone will generate about $60,000,” Mr. Parker explained, adding that the increased funds will allow the council the opportunity to “bring back some of the service levels that the council felt we really didn’t want to cut when we made cuts. It gives the council a lot of flexibility in the coming years.”

Complete coverage in our Saturday edition.

—Beth Hartnett