The Austin City Council will likely keep a 4.98 percent city tax levy increase in 2015.

Council members preliminarily approved the increase during a work session Monday to add 1.5 full-time jobs, keep up with funding requirements and honor service requests.

City officials are looking to increase the city budget by $205,000 to help pay for a new full-time librarian and to move a part-time building inspector position up to full time.

The city of Austin has cut staff from about 180 positions in the 1980s to about 139 positions this year, about two positions annually over the past 25 or so years. Yet recent retirements and other vacancies have forced city staff to look at Austin’s operations.

Librarian Gayle Heimer recently announced her retirement, which goes into effect in April 2015. Austin Public Library Executive Director Ann Hokanson told the council in June that she would have to hire two full-time librarians to replace Heimer, who did multiple jobs for the library.

Other changes to next year’s budget include $1,000 more for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, a lobbying group that represents outstate cities at the Capitol. The city expects to pay $52,000 next year to the coalition.

Council members will also invite Jake Vela, executive director of the Welcome Center of Austin, to a council meeting to discuss the Welcome Center’s increased budget request.

The Welcome Center usually gets $5,000 per year but asked for $10,000 for 2015.

There could be a few more changes to the budget before the council firmly sets next year’s levy in December. Council Member Judy Enright advocated for a new Parks and Recreation employee to keep up with maintenance on the city’s flood property and parks.

“We’ve got a lot to offer in Parks and Recreation,” Enright said.

Parks and Recreation Director Kim Underwood told the council it was difficult to hire part-time employees this summer, even though the city increased its part-time employee budget for that department.

“This was the hardest summer to try and find staff,” she said.

In addition, previous solutions such as contracting odd jobs out could cost the city more money, according to Finance Director Tom Dankert. Dankert expressed reservations on simply adding a new parks and recreation employee and asked the council for more time to research the request.

It’s too early to say how much a 5 percent increase would affect residents as the county’s tax rate for 2015 won’t be released until later this fall. In the past, the city has made up about 36 percent of a property owner’s overall taxes.

In addition, there are several factors which could offset part of the tax levy increase.

Austin expects to get about $80,000 in increased Local Government Aid next year, according to state estimates. In addition, the city usually gets 2 to 3 percent more in taxes every year from new property owners.