The way David Schauner sees it, his colleagues on the Lawrence City Commission are a soft touch. And he wants to get tough.

That’s why Schauner earlier this week proposed a new method for building City Hall’s 2005 budget that would make it difficult for commissioners to raise taxes.

His suggestion: Figure out the budget’s bottom line ahead of time, then make program decisions accordingly.

“Whatever number we agree to in advance, we spend only that amount,” Schauner said during a commission study session Wednesday. “Otherwise we’ll find ourselves with three votes to raise taxes … because we’ll lack the political will to say ‘no’ to certain programs and expenditures.”

Traditionally, the bottom line becomes clear only as the five-member commission makes dozens of smaller budget decisions — how much to give each City Hall department and outside agency. Schauner’s colleagues on Wednesday said they wanted to stick with that approach.

“I don’t think we can arbitrarily, at the start of the process, say, ‘This is it and no more,'” Mayor David Dunfield said. “It’s our job to weigh all the factors.”

Schauner was a vocal critic during the 2004 budgeting process, which resulted in a nearly 10 percent increase in the property-tax rate.

At the time he said commissioners, swayed by personal appeals from agency and department heads, too easily allowed property taxes to rise instead of making hard choices about service cuts.

“The analysis we’re using is more emotionally driven than fiscally driven,” Schauner said in July.

Commissioners face another rough budget year in 2005, officials said Wednesday. If tax rates remain the same, and revenues from sales and property taxes show just modest growth, the city would probably spend nearly $1 million more than it takes in 2005.

That’s because federal grants used to fund new police officers will end, while the expense of paying those officers will remain. And officials expect to pay for a new fire station during the year, as well.

“It’s going to be difficult to do with current revenue levels,” finance director Ed Mullins said.

Setting a cap on budget expenses ahead of time would force some politically difficult choices, Schauner said, including reducing expenses for popular programs.

“I’m looking for a more rational budget process on this, rather than ‘this is a good idea, this is a good idea, this is a good idea, and gee, this is the number we end up with,'” Schauner said.

But Dunfield said the commission received many valid budget requests that get turned down for fiscal reasons.

“It seems to me, in terms of the politics of a decision, it’s easier to say we’re not going to have a tax increase and proceed on that basis,” Dunfield said after the meeting.

Public budget hearings begin in May. Final approval of the budget is expected in August.