A new business and operations tax is the biggest new addition in Mayor Denis Law’s proposed 2015-2016 biennial budget, announced Monday during the City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

The new tax is designed to help the city meet an expected gap between expenditures and revenues that officials said would, if not addressed, affect the service levels provided by the city government.

But aside from the new tax and the addition of a handful of new positions at City Hall, the next biennial budget is being characterized as primarily a status quo budget.

The proposed city budget for the next two years totals about $486 million, with $230 million going to the general fund, which provides most of the city services, including police and fire.

The new budget represents an increase of 6.2 percent in overall spending, though that number is artificially low due to several large projects funded primarily though grants. Without the capital projects, the increase is more like 12.4 percent, but the city again said that number is deceptive because a new contract was negotiated during the current budget.

“As in past years, the budget I present here today mixes aspiration with reality, hope with hard truth and inspiration despite fiscal challenges,” Law said during his remarks to the council.

The biggest ticket item in the new budget is the B&O tax, which the city has been discussing with local businesses and the council for much of this year. Under the budget proposal, the new tax would be at a rate of 0.05 for all retail receipts above $1.5 million in revenue and 0.085 on non-retail business activities.

The city estimates the new tax will bring in $5.4 million when fully implemented.

As a positive on the revenue side, Financial Services Director Iwen Wang told the council that sales tax revenues are finally back to the pre-recession level they were in 2008.

There are a few new funding proposals, however, including increased staffing in the Community and Economic Development department to keep pace with an increase in permit activity. In total, nine new positions were added to the next budget. According to the mayor’s presentation, one is a limited-term position, two will be funded through utilities and six through the general fund.

“A number of these positions, especially in Community and Economic Development are funded through the dramatic increase in permit activity and fees,” Law said.

In addition, two full-time school resource officers are being added to the police department’s ranks, partially funded by the Renton School District, to ensure an officer is on the beat at all three Renton high schools.

Along with the handful of new jobs, there’s an additional $48,000 for Human Services.

According to Law, the city was only able to fund about half of the requests received in the last budget cycle and this additional funding should allow them to “meet the financial needs of a number of smaller requests and help these agencies continue to meet some of the critical needs in the community.”

In addition, the new budget also addresses a few maintenance and capital improvement projects that the city has put off during the recession, but the mayor said can no longer wait, including repairing pillars and float structures that help stabilize the banks at Coulon Park and updating some of the city’s irrigation system.

The next step in the process will be presentations to the Committee of the Whole from each city department explaining their budget requests, as well as a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 20. The first reading of the budget ordinances is expected Oct. 27 with adoption expected Nov. 3.