DCC chief executive Jim Harland said department heads had been asked to present their spending plans for scrutiny ahead of pre-annual plan and long-term council community plan hearings scheduled for early next year.
The review was held from November 3 to 7 and the budget discussions included the possibility of deferring some projects, such as the next stage of the Otago Settlers Museum upgrade, Mr Harland confirmed.
"We did ask staff to identify where we could potentially stop a project. For a project that hasn't started, clearly we could delay it."
At the same time, council funds for the planned $188 million Otago stadium were included as part of the proposed budgets, although a final "go, no go" decision would be made by councillors in February, he said.
"We have included the funding for it in the plan because that's the current policy call," he said.
The result would be a draft budget presented to councillors in January that proposed a rates increase of less than 10%, he said.
"We wanted to keep it in single figures and as low as possible, consistent with providing the services, and that's what we did."
Earlier this year, a proposed rates increase of 12.5% was reduced to 10.4% for 2008-09.
Mr Harland said this year's savings proposals did not include any "radical changes to service delivery", such as selling council assets, as staff did not have a mandate for that.
However, those responsible for the council's property investment portfolio had been asked to manage it "more aggressively", and the review's emphasis was also focused on the ability of departments to spend their proposed budgets, he said.
He declined to discuss in detail other projects that could be deferred ahead of deliberations by councillors, and said it would be "up to councillors whether they wish to accept some of the costs", he said.
A draft plan identifying possible areas where money could be saved, and the implications of the reduced spending, would be presented to councillors later this month ahead of formal hearings on January 21-23, he said.
The review process was one council staff engaged in every year but, given the economic turmoil, "certainly, there's a greater concern this year we get it right", he said.
"We are mindful it's difficult for everybody but . . . we put the same pressure on every year."
The review panel had gone through each department's numbers "line by line", comparing actual spending for last year and this year to next year's proposed spending, he said.
"Where we get significant changes, we tend to focus on those," he said.
A draft plan containing the spending proposals would be released for public submissions on March 14, closing April 15. Hearings will be held in May, with budgets finalised by March next year.
