LEWISTON — There’s not a lot of new spending, new programs or new staff in the city’s proposed 2015-16 budget — and yet, property taxes could go up.

City Administrator Ed Barrett outlined a familiar tale for councilors Tuesday night as he presented his proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

Outside forces — reductions in state revenue-sharing combined with increased costs — leave little room for budget maneuvers.

“As we have done so much in the past few years, we have reduced departmental budgets by eliminating repairs to the buildings, cutting back on vehicle and equipment purchases and eliminating many capital purchases, reducing the amount of building demolition and cutting back on employee training and education,” Barrett said.

Barrett’s proposed budget looks to increase spending for city services by about $1.2 million in the 2015-16 fiscal year compared to this year. That’s a 2.81 percent increase. It includes increases in personnel costs and health insurance, state retirement fund payments, General Fund capital spending and contracted services.

Combined with a $3.7 million increase in school spending, the city could be faced with an overall 4.76 percent increase.

“What is driving our budget is simply a lack of revenue,” Barrett said. “We are not seeing growth in our non-tax revenue; we are not seeing growth in our property tax base.”

It could amount to a $159 more in property taxes for a home valued at $150,000.

“Now the hard stuff begins,” Barrett told councilors. “There will be a lot of a burdens placed on you over the next six weeks as we go over this budget in greater detail and try to find our way to a conclusion.”

Councilors will begin their work trying to trim the budget. They’ve scheduled a workshop with the School Committee at 6:45 p.m. Monday, March 30, at Lewiston Middle School and the first of many municipal budget workshops on April 2 in Lewiston City Hall.

Barrett said councilors will have their work cut out for them. Councilors will have to trim $3.7 million from their budget to get under a spending limit written into the City Charter. That limits spending to 1.19 percent — the gross domestic product price deflator for the previous year — without a City Council five-vote majority.

“So I can tell you right now, it’s pretty unlikely we’ll get down to that level, so I anticipate the budget will have to be approved by five affirmative votes,” Barrett said.

Finance Director Heather Hunter said the proposed budget should be available on the city’s website, www.lewistonmaine.gov, on Wednesday morning.

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