The City of Winnipeg has promised to devote more money to streets and parks in its 2007 preliminary operating budget, released Thursday.

The budget extends the property tax freeze into its 10th year. It also continues a plan to reduce business taxes, setting a rate of 7.75 per cent for all city businesses, as promised earlier by Mayor Sam Katz.

Overall, spending in the city will increase by about $20 million to $741 million.

About half of the increase will be spent on what the budget calls "clean and green" initiatives.

The city will increase spending on parks, urban forestry and city beautification, such as tree and flower planting, tree pruning, snow hauling, weekly street cleaning in the downtown area, improved park maintenance, expanded graffiti control and "image route enhancements."

Katz said the budget restores services cut in the past.

"Some of these are basic services. These are things that we had … in certain areas, I think they call it 'death by a thousand cuts,'" he said.

"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that there were areas that should have been cut, and had to be cut. There were some areas that may have gotten cut that they didn't know they probably should not have."

Spending on public safety is also going up by about $6 million, although that will not pay for any new officers. The funding for the police street crime unit, assigned to last year's Operation Clean Sweep, has been made permanent.

With taxes frozen or falling, the city says the extra money for the spending increases be paid for with almost $12 million in transfers from reserves —including $9 million from the fiscal stabilization reserve — as well as the increased assessment base brought about by new construction, and a plan to find $2 million in "efficiencies" at city hall.

Those efficiencies could include anything from paring down spending to job losses, city officials said.

The preliminary operating budget will now be reviewed by several committees at City Hall before councillors vote on it March 20.