A soft economy, coupled with Dallas City Council members' reluctance to slash services or raise taxes, continue to complicate efforts to balance Dallas' municipal budget ahead of autumn.

Acknowledging as much, City Manager Mary Suhm on Wednesday suggested to the council reducing a number of services to both enhance others and fill a projected budget gap of about $50 million.

Potential cuts include reducing library branch hours from 47 to 36, scaling back street and park maintenance and dedicating fewer resources to recreational programs, cable TV access, several neighborhood swimming pools, utility pay stations, the city zoo and aquarium, and neighborhood nuisance abatement.

Sanitation and water fees also are slated to rise, and Dallas would defer maintenance of many of its more than 600 buildings.

But at this early juncture – Ms. Suhm won't present her formal budget proposal to the council until August – city staff is likewise suggesting the council increase Dallas' police force by 200 officers and bolster its code compliance department with 30 officers, 10 animal services workers and 10 animal shelter personnel.

"There's obviously a lot of work to be done. Clearly, the challenge we have is limited resources and a lot of needs," Mayor Tom Leppert said.

"This is the time when we sit and really crunch a lot of numbers," Ms. Suhm said, noting that her staff has already spent countless hours poring over budget data and prioritizing prospective services.

Ms. Suhm noted that sales tax revenue continues to fall below projections, "and I'm concerned next month will be more challenging."

A key test comes Friday, when the Dallas Central Appraisal District is scheduled to release its preliminary property tax rolls.

Dallas officials are expecting property tax revenue to increase by about 5 percent over last year, although there's no guarantee such an estimate will materialize. Worse-than-expected property tax revenue would put Dallas in an even stickier financial situation. Better-than-expected revenue may, however, exorcise many of the city's budgetary specters.

All the while, city budget officials are operating under the presumption that the council will keep Dallas' municipal property tax rate flat – long a goal of Mr. Leppert, in particular. The full council will ultimately decide whether to adjust the tax rate.

Several council members have recommended that the city aggressively seek ways to increase municipal revenue through methods that don't involve taxes. In recent years, money made from advertising kiosk and soft drink distribution contracts, as well as gas drilling land lease agreements, have helped plug budget holes.

Other such enterprises have backfired, however, at least from a financial standpoint: Dallas expects to miss revenue projections on its red-light running camera system by several million dollars because fewer people are running red lights, generating fewer fines.

"As we're cutting the budget, it's our responsibility to try to find some dollars," Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway said.

Over the next few weeks, city departments will march through a process known as "budgeting for outcomes." In so doing, they will continue compiling and vetting lists of services they want to provide and perform, then forward the recommendations to top city management.

City management, in turn, decides which services it considers vital enough to "buy" with $1.97 billion – a figure the council months ago estimated Dallas needs to run city government for one year.

"Today, we're still early in the process from the standpoint that we still have a lot of unknowns," Dave Cook, the city's chief financial officer, said Wednesday.

As he has for years, District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky said he wants city officials to cut the tax rate, not simply keep it level. The current budget projections, he said, are "going to tax these people to death."

His recommendation appears to have little support among his colleagues, although Mr. Leppert, Mr. Caraway and Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia each said after the meeting that they have no intention of raising the tax rate, which stands at 74.79 cents per $100 in assessed property value.

"No," Mr. Leppert said without pause when asked if he'd consider a tax rate increase. "Where we are now is still the point that I'm at."

In August, the council becomes jury and judge to Ms. Suhm's budget proposal, endowed with the power to amend the spending plans as its members see fit. The council must pass a budget by the end of September.

In other action, the council formally authorized purchasing an 8.34-acre tract of downtown land on which to build a publicly owned Dallas Convention Center hotel, and to issue $42 million worth of certificates of obligation to fund the purchase.

The vote, which passed easily, was a formality. The council last week voted 11-2 to approve the land purchase and proceed toward selecting a developer and operator of a city-owned hotel facility.

Some of Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm's preliminary suggestions to balance the city's budget next year:

SERVICE REDUCTIONS

•Reduce operation and maintenance of city facilities ($8.4 million)

•Cut back branch library hours from 47 to 36 hours per week; reduce multicultural programming and materials ($3.6 million)

•Cut maintenance of streets and traffic signals ($14.6 million)

•Reduce attorneys and support staff to address neighborhood nuisance abatement ($1.8 million)

•Scale back park and recreation youth programs, zoo and aquarium facilities, neighborhood pools and maintenance of park land ($8.3 million)

•Reduce cultural services including cable TV access ($1.9 million)

SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS

•Raises for uniformed employees ($9.9 million)

•Dallas Fire-Rescue Department improvements ($3.1 million)

•Hire 30 code compliance officers, 10 animal control officers and 10 animal keepers, and bolster public "mow/clean" efforts ($1.4 million)

•Accelerate debt payments ($21.4 million)

SOURCE: City of Dallas