Though Salt Lake County leaders agreed to across-the-board wage reductions Tuesday, a philosophical rift between Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon and the Democrat-controlled County Council was not bridged as wrangling about a proposed property-tax hike and a new package of budget cuts ended in an apparent stalemate.

Corroon posed a new slate of budget reductions Tuesday that looks to trim $13.6 million this year and in 2010 from the ever-shrinking coffers of county government. The cuts include an immediate 1 percent wage reduction for most county workers, budget downsizing across the board in the mayor's portfolio for 2010 and a requested 2.5 percent reduction in the budgets of elected officials next year.

The list comes on the heels of a recent proposal, approved by the council on a party-line vote, to shift more than $5 million in outstanding debt from sales-tax revenue to property-tax revenue. The move would raise property taxes about $10 a year on a $250,000 home in Salt Lake County.

Corroon maintains that while the economy has required ongoing work to overcome fiscal obstacles, increasing property taxes is not the solution.

"I understand the council's decision in light of the serious challenges facing the county at this time," Corroon said in a statement. "However, I strongly believe that Salt Lake County should continue to look at every avenue to reduce expenses before considering increasing property taxes."

Though the county budget for 2009 is balanced, changes in revenues and expenses affect the reserve fund balances that are carried from the end of one year into the next. The health of these funds is a critical component in securing a high bond rating for borrowing money to fund county projects.

Democratic Council Chairman Joe Hatch said the property tax hike is necessary to address fund balance concerns for 2009, namely a $5.3 million gap left by an unexpected reduction in interest on county investments. He noted the mayor's proposal would only reduce this shortfall by $1.5 million.

"Here's the big difference," Hatch said. "The mayor wants us to roll back the tax and do so by looking at the fund balances for Dec. 31, 2010. … We want to make decisions based on those balances as they will exist on Dec. 31, 2009."

Corroon's chief administrative officer, Doug Willmore, told the council that fund balances were not in jeopardy and in fact had improved since the start of the year.

"There is no budget imbalance in 2009," Willmore said. "Even with losing that interest that was planned on … it's higher than it was in January."

Willmore said the projected end-of-year fund balance had grown from $22 million in January to a current $29 million.