It's budget crunch time and Saskatoon city council is under pressure to pare down a proposed tax increase of 5.2 per cent.

At the same time, there is pressure for it to do more to fix roads and remove snow.

The mayor and council are going line-by-line through the $812-million budget, which was released last week. They were at it for hours on Tuesday and will be back at it again today.

Coun. Charlie Clark said civic politicians and managers are being tested.

"Going out of this previous election you can feel it," he said. "You know, there's a real sense that I think people's hopes and expectations of the services that they're going to get are going up."

At the same time council is dealing with the pressures of a growing city, Clark added.

Road maintenance and snow removal have been identified as two of the top public concerns.

Coun. Tiffany Paulsen also worries about the rising price to get into city-owned swimming pools and gyms.

"I think for us to turn around and say to residents in Saskatoon that you have to pay $9 to get into any of our leisure facilities, it creates barriers that are not appropriate," she said.

Paulsen said the city has to look at ways of lowering its costs, so it doesn't have to charge as much.

So far, councillors haven't identified ways to put a major dent in the proposed property tax increase.