Property levies often have to be modified for reasons having little to do with program spending."

Instead of relying on property levies alone, municipalities might be able to raise revenue by taxing parking, payrolls, hotels or even entertainment and sporting events.

The library board avoided asking for town tax money because Pelham's 13,000 residents are faced with up to 30 percent increases in property levies resulting from the reduction of several corporate assessments that were successfully challenged in court.

Mr. Perry was assailed over a new business tax to remedy a school-financing crisis and lower property levies, and for a planned toll road complex that Ms. Strayhorn called "the Trans-Texas Catastrophe."

The municipal budget reviews were started last spring when Mrs. Whitman, responding to criticism that her cuts in state taxes would force up local property levies, challenged local governments and school districts to practice the same frugality that she said she would impose on the state.