Spokane Mayor Mary Verner says she's not considering new taxes to bail the city out of its $10 million hole for 2011.

City leaders are getting an early start to the budget for the second year in a row and will present a preliminary budget plan to City Council by early May, Verner said in an interview this week. She said she is asking all departments to take an across-the-board cut of nearly 3 percent that will save $3.5 million and will unveil a plan in the coming weeks that will deal with the remeaining $6.5 million hole.

"Our work force will shrink this time around. There's no way around it," Verner said. "This year, there will be impact on services,"

Verner has ruled out raising utility taxes and says she doesn't plan to ask voters for higher property taxes through a levy lid lift. That was part of Mayor Jim West's strategy to help deal with significant deficits in 2005.

"I'm not counting on any increased on-going source of revenue," Verner said. "One reason that I'm not counting on them is ...  I don't know if they're going to be viable in this economic climate."

She said some members of the City Council have advised her that they want to consider new taxes or fees to help fill the gap.

"Even if they do come up with new revenue, it just gives us a little more cushion, it doesn't solve the budget problem," Verner said.

She said she is asking for city union "help" in achieving savings for the $6.5 million portion of the deficit, but declined to elaborate.

The mayor also said part of the $6.5 million in cuts could be saved by eliminating programs or cutting some areas more significantly than the across-the-board cut. She declined to give further details on the cuts until the plan is released.

"It's not fair to the City Council to not roll them out to them first," she said.