Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler presented his recommendations for next year's budget to City Council members Monday morning, and in general, all five council members in attendance said they were supportive of his ideas.

The main point of consensus among the city council members was Beutler's recommendation of a zero percent increase in property tax, but many say there are still many details to be agreed upon.

"Going into this, I thought maybe it was going to be an impossible task... And I think it speaks very well for the city of Lincoln that we've come up with some positive solutions," said City Council Member Jayne Snyder.

"This is the last time we want to be raising property taxes on people in this economic situation that we're in. I don't think people can afford it, I don't think businesses can afford it, and I think the last thing we want to do is put businesses and our citizens in a tough economic situation," said City Council Member Adam Hornung.

Mayor Beutler said he plans to work around the tough economic situation by increasing the telecommunications tax from 5.5 to 6 percent, and increasing the natural gas franchise fee, which when combined would raise about $730,000 for the city.

"If you gave us all a choice, we wouldn't pay more. But the reality is, if you look at the fact that we have a drop in property tax values, and we have a drop in sales tax revenue, we certainly have to replace that revenue somehow," said City Council Chair Doug Emery.

The mayor also focused on the programs he was able to save, a point City Council Member Gene Carroll says he should be proud of.

"We're providing some good services that I think the community needs, libraries, community pools, there are a lot of good things in the budget," said Carroll.

But, the mayor also said he'd transfer $500,000 out of the Special Assessment Revolving Fund to make ends meet, and City Council Member Jon Camp said that's an idea he has some concerns with and would like to discuss further.

The next step in the budget process is for the city council members to meet with individual city departments, and go over their budgets in detail. Then they say they'll have a public hearing in mid-August, followed by a vote on the final budget near the end of August.