Perhaps the biggest news about Dan Onorato's $677.5 million budget proposal is what's not in it. No tax increase. No layoffs. No dip into the reserve fund.

The Allegheny County chief executive had to make painful moves last year to balance the budget, including hundreds of job cuts. In the end, the cuts and the spending restraints produced a razor-thin surplus of $140,000, which was deposited in the county's reserve fund, now a little over $17 million.

That's only a 2.5 percent cushion, about half the amount the county should have socked away. Mr. Onorato is right to leave the reserve untouched for 2006, with hopes for rebuilding it soon to a meaningful size. But even in a budget with only a 0.6 percent increase, there is more than restraint and denial.

The Democratic county executive proposes spending $1.8 million to hire 35 new police officers to replenish the ranks thinned by retirements from the last two years. He wants $843,000 to create a second grand jury and a gun violence task force, new tools for the district attorney to use in the fight against gun-related crime. He is seeking $475,000 more so the controller's office can do audits for Community College of Allegheny County and Port Authority Transit, county agencies that are under pressure to reduce costs.

The budget will also get the first boost from the voters last May who approved the consolidation of county row offices. In the phased restructuring, the jury commissioner's office will be folded into Common Pleas Court next year, saving the county operating budget $370,000. Additional savings will come later, after more offices are moved or combined.

Mr. Onorato would also limit the capital budget to $69.5 million. The long-term projects funded largely by bond, state and federal revenues includes brownfields reclamation, construction of skateboard facilities in county parks, installation of a snow-tubing area at Boyce Park; replacement of voting machines with electronic units and consolidation of future medical examiner operations with the health department.

Not part of either budget, but relevant to future spending is the work of the county executive's 26-member committee on the Kane nursing homes. The four centers, which provide care for the indigent elderly, are expected to lose $2.7 million this year because of low occupancy and other factors. To his credit, Mr. Onorato says he's seen enough reports; he wants the task force to provide an action plan on the Kanes next year.

That's a sober assignment, and one that is compatible with the county executive's frugal approach to budgeting. Council members may try to tweak his proposal here or there, but they should give the plan general support.