The Whitefish City Council is poised to approve a $41 million preliminary budget tonight following a public hearing on the proposed budget.

The budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is about $4.8 million bigger than last year. It adds a new position of human resource director to the city staff, bumps up an engineering technician position from part to full time and gives most city employees a 3.8 percent raise.

However, most of the increase is attributed to spending down accumulated and saved cash balances for infrastructure projects in the resort tax, street, stormwater, water and wastewater funds, City Manager Chuck Stearns said in his budget report.

The council has held two budget work sessions and will hold another in July prior to final adoption of the budget on Aug. 18.

The projected property-tax mill levy rate is the same as last year at this point in the budgeting process.

Stearns said he’s conservatively estimating that the property tax base on which the mill levy rate is set will grow by only 2 percent in the coming fiscal year, compared to 2.2 percent growth over the past year.

“If it grows more than that, we can make a decision to increase cash balances, increase or restore some expenditures or reduce the property tax levy,” he said.

Two other public hearings on tonight’s agenda deal with The Lodge at Whitefish Lake’s proposal to expand its marina.

The first hearing will consider an application for a major lakeshore variance to add nine marina slips, for a total of 103 slips, extend the gangway by 19.46 feet and increase the amount of constructed area below the high-water mark to 12,381 square feet.

Lodge owners recently purchased additional lakeshore property, which increases their constructed area allowance and the number of slips permitted for a public arena. They initially requested 18 extra slips but withdrew a request for the additional nine slips.

City staff recommends the council approve the nine slips but deny the major variance.

The second hearing focuses on a request from the Dan Averill Family Trust, which owns The Lodge, to amend an existing planned-unit development to increase the number of boat slips permitted within the marina from 85 to 95 and extend the dock farther out into Whitefish Lake.

In other business, the council will consider a revised request of $200,000 in tax-increment funds for an exterior facade renovation at the Mountain Mall. The council denied an earlier request for $400,000 in tax-increment assistance.

The Carrington Company, owner of the mall, and Mall Manager Tom Kraus are guaranteeing full repayment of the money by 2020.

The council will hold a work session from 5:30 to 7 p.m. to discuss the potential regulation of commercial activities on Whitefish Lake.

The regular meeting begins at 7:10 p.m.; both the work session and meeting are at Whitefish City Hall.