There’s an economy to be developed, rents to be paid, animals to be cared for and sick to be healed.

Now Lawrence city commissioners must decide how — or if — they can do all those things.

Commissioners started planning for the 2004 budget Wednesday by sitting down with the heads of two dozen independent Lawrence agencies seeking city tax dollars to supplement their own budgets. The requests come as the city struggles through tight financial times.

“The city cannot fill every gap,” Mayor David Dunfield said. “But we will have to look at all of these.”

The independent agencies ranged from the Lawrence Humane Society to the Lawrence Arts Center to the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. Combined, the 24 agencies asked commissioners for $1.37 million for 2004, a projected 7.8 percent increase over the $1.27 million in allocations this year.

But that figure belied the mostly conservative nature of the budget requests. Five of the agencies asking for money for 2004 did not receive funding in this year’s city budget; together they are asking for $165,530. The remaining agencies asked for a combined $1.2 million, which would be a slight decrease from what they received this year.

The city’s economic development officials have long cried that they needed more money for the job. But their $109,000 request Wednesday represented a reduction from the $117,000 budgeted this year.

“We’re trying to be conservative,” said Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “There’s no use in going in and asking for a 10 percent increase when we know they don’t have it.”

Among the biggest new requests: $60,000 for the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence and $49,260 for Heartland Medical Clinic.

Al Hack Jr., a member of the Boys & Girls Club board (and husband of Commissioner Sue Hack) said the money was needed to replace grant funding the agency is losing.

Without the money, Hack said, the agency might have to shut down some of the eight sites it operates to give hundreds of children a place to study and play after school.

“We are trying to move forward without closing any of those clubs,” he said. “We need that $60,000 to keep the existing sites open.”

The Rev. Paul Gray, of Heartland Community Church, said the $49,260 was a one-time only request to help the part-time medical clinic expand its hours to better serve Lawrence’s working poor and homeless.

“There’s a greater need,” he said. “We’re seeing more and more people.”

Dunfield said commissioners would have to make tough choices about which agencies would receive funding — and which would not.

“It’s no secret we’re in a tight budget situation,” he said. “We’ll evaluate them one by one.”

The next budget meeting is scheduled for May 19.