LEWISTON – Debt payments, salary and wage increases and lower non-tax revenues would push property tax collections up in the next fiscal year, according to draft budget presented Thursday.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said his proposed budget would increase city spending by $2,166,819 in fiscal 2009, compared to this year. That would mean a property tax increase of $84 on the average Lewiston home.

Councilors will need to reduce the budget by $1.16 million – or find other revenues – to keep property taxes from increasing.

“I’ve never had a council adopt a budget as I’ve presented it,” Bennett told councilors. “They’ve always reduced it, and that’s what I’m expecting you to do. This really is the beginning of the process.”

Departmental spending would be even, compared to the current budget.

“We’ve created no new programs, we’re not adding new employees,” Bennett said. In fact, the budget calls for eliminating 4.5 positions – including a GIS mapping position that is occupied. The other jobs are vacant.

“I prefer to do things that way, by reducing employees through attrition,” Bennett said. Lewiston has reduced its staff size by 45 positions since Bennett was hired in 2002.

The budget calls for spending $1.6 million from the general budget on capital projects, including street repairs. Councilors began setting aside general fund revenues – compared to borrowed money – for streets last year. But Bennett said he’d prefer to spend more, up to $2.8 million.

But the budget also calls for no change in water rates and the city’s storm water utility and a 6 percent increase in sewer rates. It also calls for a 5.1 percent increase in other fees charged by City Hall such as for documents and permits.

City fees and taxes would add about $102 worth of costs to the average homeowner.

Bennett’s presentation also included 30 slides comparing Lewiston’s operations to similarly sized Maine municipalities on things such as the number of assessing records, the number of vehicle registrations processed, the average cost per streetlight and crime and crime clearance rates.

“We’re trying to answer a question, does it feel like we’re doing it right?” Bennett said. “I believe we are. I know there is room for us to improve, but finding that out is the point of going through this process.”

In most scenarios, Lewiston comes out in the middle by comparison. In a few cases, Lewiston’s statistics stand out. Fire personnel, for example, do more fire inspections and presentations per employee than either Augusta, Portland, South Portland or Scarborough.

In another example, Lewiston has the second highest number of police officers for every 1,000 residents – at 2.25 full-time officers, it is second only to Portland and even with the national average.

Bennett admits his measurements don’t give a clear picture of city efficiency.

“One thing, they don’t show costs for each item,” Bennett said. “But these are designed to start the conversation.”

Councilors are scheduled to continue their budget discussions in two weeks with a March 25 public hearing. Copies of the entire 1,610-page budget book are available via download on the city’s Web site.