Issaquah Mayor Fred Butler on Monday proposed a 2015 city budget that he said would leave nearly $8 million in the city’s general fund by that year’s end.

Butler’s budget, if approved as-is by the City Council over the next month, will include a 1 percent increase to property taxes, an increase to the Business and Occupation tax effective in April and increases to certain service fees, such as park space rentals. Utility rates, however, would not increase and the city would seek cost savings through reorganization of city services, such as Parks and Recreation, as well as continuing two planning staff vacancies. Grants appropriated by city staff would alleviate the need for revenues gained by taxes.

“As I turn now to how we’ve restructured our financial road map, I’d like to highlight these simple words: this is a balanced budget,” Butler said.

The proposed budget is indeed balanced, but proposed expenses will still outpace estimated revenues, with the gap being bridged with a portion of the leftovers from 2014, according to a document detailing the budget provided by the city. The planned $118.3 million in total expenditures would be greater than revenues by nearly $11 million. All told, Issaquah would begin 2015 with more than $61 million and end it with a little more than $50 million.

This is because of a number of capital projects being prioritized by the mayor’s office for 2015, as well as debt payments of nearly $2.3 million on councilmanic bonds that funded past construction.

Pointing to the city’s achievement of a Standard & Poor’s AAA bond rating in May — the highest rating offered by the financial services company — Butler said it was time for the city to invest in its infrastructure.

Butler cited replacement of the Dogwood Bridge, upgrading of the Mt. Park pump station, the Complete Streets Program, the annual street overlay program, the annual sewer main rehab program and improvements to West Lake Sammamish Parkway drainage as major capital projects planned for the year.

With the mayor’s proposed budget submitted, the council will begin study and consideration of the figures over the next month. The council is scheduled to vote on the 2015 budget Nov. 17, with a push date of Dec. 1 to accommodate initial failure in a vote or amendments to the plan.

The council held its first budget work session Thursday, after press time.