From worn-out equipment to leaky roofs, Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday afternoon got hit with millions of dollars worth of needs that City Hall leaders say they will struggle to fund in 2016.

Commissioners conducted a two-hour study session to review department priorities ahead of the commission’s work to craft a 2016 budget this summer. As with many budget sessions from previous years, commissioners came to a quick conclusion.

“We have an incredible amount of need, but unless we raise the tax rate by like 300 mills or something, which of course we won’t, we’re not going to be able do it all,” Mayor Jeremy Farmer said.

In the next couple of months, various departments will compete for what new money is added to the city’s 2016 budget. On Tuesday, the city’s Public Works Department got some commissioners’ attention with new data about the city’s fleet of vehicles and equipment.

Public Works Director Chuck Soules said a review has found that the average age of the city’s equipment fleet was 9.5 years in 2013. In 1999 the average age was 5.8 years. The equipment age has been on a sharp incline since 2007, when the average age was 6.7 years.

“It seems like since 2007, a lot of the department budgets have been held steady, and a lot of the equipment needs are not being met anymore,” said City Commissioner Leslie Soden, who joined the commission earlier this month, along with Commissioners Stuart Boley and Matthew Herbert.

Soules said the city garage that is used to maintain city-owned vehicles and equipment also is facing significant issues. He said the garage at 11th and Haskell is no longer large enough to house some city vehicles. For instance, mechanics have to work on several of the newer fire trucks in the garage’s driveway because they won’t fit in the building. The garage also isn’t equipped to work on compressed natural gas vehicles, which the city has begun to test.

Commissioners also heard several other issues from department leaders on Tuesday. They included:

• Progress on improving the pavement condition of many of the city’s older streets is slowing down, Soules said. The city creates a pavement condition score for every street in the city, and the average score had been rising following the passage of a 2008 infrastructure sales tax. But Soules said those gains have started to “flatten out.” He cited a decline in the amount of city funding dedicated to street maintenance work such as crack sealing, curb and gutter repairs and other work that is designed to prolong the life of city streets.

• Herbert said he wanted to have an extensive discussion about the city’s public transit department. He said he has concerns about a proposal to build a new transit hub near 21st and Iowa streets. Currently, the bus hub is located across from the Lawrence Public Library in downtown. Herbert said he heard significant concerns from voters about the efficiency of the bus system during the last campaign, both in terms of how much it costs to run the service and also how long it takes to complete many trips on the system.

• Parks and Recreation officials expressed concern about a possible reduction in funding for maintenance of parks and recreation facilities. Farmer has asked commissioners to consider a plan that would take some sales tax money currently earmarked for parks and recreation and shift it to efforts to build a $26 million police headquarters facility.

Farmer said he still wants that plan considered, but said he expects there will be trade-offs for the commission to consider.

“The commission is going to have a lot of priorities to wrestle with and juggle,” Farmer said. “But I think protecting home base needs to be the most important thing. Public safety and infrastructure needs to be where we focus our attention.”

A tax increase to fund some of the 2016 budget needs could be considered, but Farmer said residents have been pretty consistent in expressing opposition to tax increases for basic city operations.

“There is a tension at this time of year because there is such a reticence to deal with raised taxes, and that is understandable, but it comes at a cost,” Farmer said.

City commissioners will discuss the 2016 budget over the next several months, and will approve a final budget by early August.