If no vote occurs that day, Council will have to hold a special session May 29, a week after members expect to recess for summer break, to meet a May 31 deadline for approving the budget.

"I believe the majority of Council would be willing to come back on the 29th, but we are hoping to avoid that. And I believe it will not be necessary," Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. said.

In interviews, several Council members described the outstanding issues in next year's budget as minor, with one notable exception: how much money the school district will request to help plug its still-uncertain shortfall.

Significantly more controversial are the city's financial plans for the next five years, particularly promises that Mayor Nutter made in his February budget address to speed up tax reductions.

Council members are uncertain how fast and how deep those tax cuts should be, especially as projected revenue from the real estate transfer tax has fallen and as the national economy stumbles.

"They are preparing for us a couple of scenarios - one with no radical change over the five years, and one with more significant change," Councilman Frank Rizzo said.

Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez saw Nutter's dilemma this way: "He is going to have to figure out what he is willing to give up. . . . He can't get the tax cuts the way they are scheduled and still keep all this money on the table for all the priorities that he outlined."

To be sure, Council has its own priorities.

Among them, Council is seeking $750,000 in pay raises for its staff, which would mirror any pay hikes received by the city's white-collar workers in next year's labor negotiations. Council also wants $1 million set aside to hire 20 or so Recreation Department employees; there are 57 vacancies. Members also want $20,000 for each of the 10 Council districts' recreation activity funds.

In addition, the city commissioners, who are independently elected, have asked for $2.8 million to replace outdated computer hardware and give a $100-a-day boost to election board workers who staff city polling places. They now earn between $75 and $100.

Meanwhile, the administration revealed to Council that it backs an increase in the city's hotel-room tax from 7 to 8 percent. Last year, the tax generated $37 million. The increase, which would require state legislation, would be earmarked for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Yesterday's meetings followed one that didn't go as expected Thursday after reporters protested the administration's plan to meet privately with 15 Council members in Nutter's office. Reporters argued that since a quorum - nine or more of Council's 17 members - was present, the state Sunshine Law required the meeting to be public.

Nutter relented but "reserved the right" to hold such informational briefings.

Even so, that didn't happen yesterday. Instead, Nutter's staff found itself taking a page out of former Mayor John Street's playbook. Nutter's chief of staff, finance director and budget director held split sessions: They met with seven Council members in the morning in Council President Anna Verna's office, and with at least six members in the mayor's office at noon.