Salt Lake County's acting mayor wants to leave the incoming mayor with a $743 million budget that spends less money on county employees and eliminates the car allowances that scandalized county government earlier this year.

Acting Mayor Alan Dayton, who took over for Mayor Nancy Workman after she was charged with misusing public funds, presented his proposed 2005 budget to the County Council on Tuesday, saying one of his primary goals was a budget that included no new taxes.

He also said he wanted to implement some new ideas without "rocking the boat too much."

The $743 million proposal is about $8 million higher than last year's budget.

The budget includes 30 percent less money allocated to pay employees, leaving the incoming mayor, newly elected Democrat Peter Corroon, with the option of either hiring fewer employees or paying current employees less.

"To me, the cut is all about the money, not the positions," Dayton told the council.

He said his proposal would cut the mayor's office budget by 31 percent, reflecting what Dayton sees as "the true operational needs of the office and what I have actually worked with since Sept. 7."

Dayton said his proposal denies or severely curtails requested staffing increases from most other elected county officials, with the exception of the District Attorney's Office and the Legal Defender's Office, both of which Dayton said have shown a need for more workers. He said his proposal also funds more Sheriff's Office workers, a result of what he called an "underfunded state mandate" to provide court security.

Dayton said the budget takes into account the elimination of vehicle allowances, which earlier this year led to the resignation of two county employees accused of abusing the allowances.

One new idea in the budget would fund a switch-over of the county's communications system from analog to digital, primarily meant to make County Council meetings available to the public by real-time streaming audio.

And Dayton's budget would change county employees' health-care benefits, which Dayton said have increased in cost by 17 percent over the last year. The budget would continue to allow for an 80 percent payment of insurance costs by the county, with employees paying 20 percent, but it would save money by having employees pay a percentage of prescription drug costs, not the flat fee they now pay.

It would also increase employees' copayments by $5 per medical visit.

And it would increase funding for incentives in the county's healthy lifestyles programs, which encourage employees to lose weight, quit smoking and implement other preventive health measures.

Other items in Dayton's proposed budget include:

• Increased funding for security at the Christmas Box House, which provides services and shelter to abused children. "We have had everyone from Elizabeth Smart to the Kingston children there, so we need to improve our security," Dayton said.

• Money to fund a software upgrade in the county jail. A request to upgrade funding in the county auditor's office was denied because Dayton said his office determined such an upgrade was not needed.

• Money for park improvements, including concession stand improvements at Cottonwood Park and new infrastructure for Magna Park.

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