Taxes most likely won't be going up in Salt Lake County, even though rising costs and must-have requests are creating a leaner budget for Mayor Peter Corroon this year.

Instead of bumping up taxes, Corroon said his proposed 2006 budget forced him to take a hard look at what the county can sacrifice next year as rising fuel prices will cost an additional $4 million and a record number of requests threaten to eat away fund balances.

"We're trying to be as bare bones as possible without cutting services or being irresponsible," said Corroon, who will present his 2006 proposals to the County Council today.

Corroon added that his proposed budget will implement several new initiatives from his administration, which is getting its first crack at the annual budget. Starting up those programs while compensating for a $74 million shortfall left from the previous administration has meant cutting other programs and non-critical needs, Corroon said.

Roughly $609 million in requests by the county's various divisions exceed the $506 million in county coffers. That $103 million difference, however, could be diluted by eating into the county's nearly $172 million in fund balances.

While Corroon said he will have to dip into those fund balances to balance the budget this year, he will not allow the reserves to fall so low as to jeopardize the county's sterling bond rating. The general fund, for example, must keep about $20 million in reserves for the county to keep its AAA bond rating.

Although the fund is perched at $40 million, the 2006 budget requests would siphon away those reserves to only about $11 million. To keep those stockpiles up, Corroon asked many departments to scale down their requests to the bare essentials.

"We're not raising taxes so we do have people sacrificing in some areas," Corroon said. "It's a little bit stressful when times are tight, but we're trying to be open and not hide anything."

Sheriff Aaron Kennard's request for $5.5 million to re-open Oxbow jail will be one of those sacrifices. Kennard said Corroon told him last week that the jail will not get money to open 350 beds to alleviate overcrowding at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail.

Kennard has asked for the money for four years but has repeatedly been turned down.

"We need the beds. People are being kicked out because there's no beds," Kennard said. "I'm surprised that there hasn't been a hue and a cry for the sheriff kicking loose people."

During June budget adjustments, Corroon instead allotted funds to a substance abuse program designed to eventually ease overcrowding. That program has yet to make a dent in the jail's population, Kennard said.