Residents of Lawrence will have their chance to comment on the city’s proposed 2016 budget when the City Commission holds a public hearing on the budget Tuesday night.

As it currently stands, the draft budget calls for $207 million in total spending next year, a 9 percent increase over this year’s budget.

But the city will not raise property taxes to pay for that spending increase. Instead, commissioners plan to spend down some cash balances. The budget also includes planned increases in water and sewer utility fees.

On the spending side, the budget includes funding for city employee pay raises, including those already negotiated with unions representing the Lawrence Police Department and Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical. It also includes $8.7 million for residential street and major street repairs, a $1.4 million increase over this year’s budget.

“I think one of the things we’ve chosen to do is, we’re putting people above product,” Commissioner Matt Herbert said. “Previous commissions have made it their goal to build structures: the library; Rock Chalk Park. … The focus of this commission is on services for people.”

Vice Mayor Leslie Soden said she also supports the increased investment in public infrastructure, and she said she believes the salary adjustments for city employees, especially police and firefighters, are also vital.

“That gets us more in line with our peer cities,” she said. “The problem we had was our employees would reach their maximum pay sooner than in other communities. For firefighters, that was eight, nine, maybe 10 years into their career. It’s risky for us to lose qualified firefighters to other cities. We also lengthened the amount of time it takes to reach that max.”

The budget, as it was published, represents the maximum amount of taxes the city can raise next year. Commissioners still have the option of lowering that amount before they give it final approval.

After the public hearing, commissioners will vote on whether to approve the budget on first reading. A vote on final passage of the budget is scheduled for next Aug. 11.

In other business, the commission will:

• Consider approving an updated draft of the East Ninth Work Plan, as recommended by the Citizen Advisory Committee, and consider authorizing Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard to execute an agreement with the Lawrence Arts Center regarding the commitment of $50,000 from the Lawrence Arts Center toward the city’s service contract with el dorado inc. and establishing expectations for handling the agreements with artists regarding the project.

• Conduct a public hearing to allow the owner of the property at 1231 Pennsylvania St. to show cause why the enforcing officer should not be directed to raze and remove the unsafe and dangerous single-family house and accessory storage building and to remove accumulated debris scrap and storage from the exterior yard and front porch, and take appropriate action.

• Consider issuing $10.669 million in temporary notes to finance various improvement projects.

• Consider issuing $1.75 million in general obligation bonds to pay for costs of 2014 street overlay projects, and $350,000 in general obligation bonds to pay the final costs of the Ninth Street reconstruction project.

• And conduct a public hearing and vote on a resolution establishing a benefit district and authorizing intersection improvements at Sixth Street and Champion Lane.

City budget by the numbers

Total mill levy: 31.474 mills, unchanged from 2015

City property taxes for a $160,000 home: $579.12

Total budgeted spending: $206.7 million, up 9.9 percent from 2015

Water and sewer rate increase: 6.8 percent for the average residential customer; 8.1 percent for average commercial customer

Average monthly rate increase for typical 6,000 gallon residential water user: $5.18

Budgeted spending levels of top city departments:

Utilities: $56.6 million

Public Works: $29.6 million

Police: $19.9 million

Fire & Medical: $15.7 million

Parks & Recreation: $11.7 million

Transit: $7.8 million

Library: $3.75 million

Tourism: $2.06 million

City employees: 810 full time equivalents, up from 803 in 2015 and up from 795 in 2014

Wage increases for government employees whose pay comes from the general fund: $1.8 million