Budget hearings begin Thursday, and if the time is needed will carry on into this Sunday.

If experience and feedback are indicators, a core of citizens will turn out to quiz the administration on its fiscal plan and protest either cuts affecting their interests – such as the plan to level fund schools for another year – or claim cuts could be made to save the taxpayers from a rate increase, if not reduce taxes. And it is guaranteed there will be line-by-line scrutiny of the budget by the City Council.

But from early indications, we would be surprised to find taxpayers marching on City Hall as they did during the administration of former Mayor Charles Donovan or rallying to save school sports as they did several years ago. There’s no threat to cut sports.

This is not to say that Mayor Scott Avedisian’s proposed $288.8 million budget is without controversy.

In a departure from recent budgets, the mayor is drawing from city reserves that as of last June totaled $11.8 million to balance his spending package. His budget calls for $3.6 million from reserves, meaning that the city could face a structural deficit in the 2016 budget cycle.

But Avedisian is thinking ahead.

When asked whether use of reserves is a slippery slope, he said the city is projecting a $1.2 million surplus in the current year, which would boost reserves, and that his proposal to give full-time city employees a one-time $1,000 bonus would not be a recurring expense in the 2016 budget. That bonus, costing a total of $800,000, is designed to reward the city’s unions for entering into contracts that froze their wages for three years.

Freezing wages was a duel benefit for taxpayers. It capped wage costs as well as cost of living adjustments for retirees. The result was a reduction in unfunded pension liabilities of more than $5 million.

Obviously, we’re jumping way ahead. The 2015 budget is what is on the docket, and the issues of 2016 are on the distant horizon.

If approved by the City Council, the mayor’s budget would increase residential taxes by 23 cents per $1,000 of property valuation, or $43.85 for the average Warwick home valued at $190,647.

In his budget message, Avedisian said he thought “long and hard” about using more of the surplus and eliminating an increase in taxes. In the end, he said, he listened to his fiscal advisors and concluded the tax increase “was the fiscally prudent thing to do to ensure the continued fiscal health of our community.”

Now it’s up to the City Council and the public to agree or offer a workable alternative.