LEWISTON – A proposed city budget would see fees increase 5.1 percent and property taxes rise about 3.3 percent.

The city’s proposed $44.5 million budget goes before the City Council beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday. After a public hearing on the spending plan, councilors are scheduled to act on a list of municipal financial issues – including approving the final budget and setting property tax revenues and storm and water district fees.

City Administrator Jim Bennett expects about $147,336 less revenue from fees and investments in the coming year. That includes revenues from excise taxes as well as city interest.

That’s coupled with a 3.3 percent spending increase, despite $1.3 million in City Council cuts over the past few weeks.

“But despite all of that, I don’t think people will notice any big changes in service,” Bennett said.

There are two exceptions, however. The city’s transfer station at the landfill will be open half as many Saturdays as it was last year in an effort to curb overtime costs. And councilors will begin reducing the amount paid for parochial school busing.

The current budget calls for spending $224,000 for Lewiston parochial school buses, and the councilors called for cutting $56,000 of that from the 2009 budget.

The goal is to phase that spending out completely within four years.

Bennett said the budget also calls for reducing staff size by 5.5 full time jobs, all through retirements or attrition.

The budget also calls for a 5 percent increase on discretionary fees and charges – including birth certificates, landfill tipping fees and fire alarm fees. That’s worth $89,887 in new revenues compared to the current year’s budget.