JUST as household budgets are feeling the squeeze, so the same is true for Notts County Council as well.
The parties vying for election may not agree on much, but they do all admit that trying to find savings of £134 million over the next four years is going to be tricky.
It will be especially hard as £180 million has already been taken out of the budget over the past four years.
However, none of the parties have immediate plans to raise council tax, which has been frozen since 2009.
Labour proposed increasing council tax by three per cent in their opposition budget in 2012, but leader Alan Rhodes said this was no longer on the cards.
He added: "This was proposed as an alternative budget to the one the Conservatives were proposing, but we know times are hard and don't have plans to increase council tax as it stands and will review that situation year on year because we have to be realistic about where we are.
"There will be challenges ahead – the coalition Government has given the council increasingly difficult settlements to deal with."
And what about the hole in the finances? "We can't guarantee there won't be job losses because we have to be honest with the people in Notts. But we'll look at how we can share services with other authorities, the districts and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and so on. There's a lot of duplication in services and we need to be intelligent about that," Mr Rhodes said.
This is where there is clear light between the Labour and Conservative plans, with party leader Kay Cutts suggesting that money could be saved by the private sector taking on council services, with employees transferring from the council to the private provider.
Mrs Cutts said: "We have a clear plan here for investing wisely and not spending money recklessly – we are proud of what we have done in the county.
"When Labour were in charge, Nottinghamshire was among the highest charging shire authorities and we made a pledge back in 2009 to freeze council tax and that is something we are proud to have stuck by and are proud to propose to continue until 2016.
"It is only right that we continue to freeze council tax and give value for the county taxpayers – and this is the focus of everything we have done over the past four years and everything we intend to do over the next four."
The Liberal Democrats have also pledged not to increase council tax in the first year if they are part of the administration.
Party leader Jason Zadrozny said: "The coalition Government has given money for authorities to freeze council tax and it's good that the County Council has followed this – we will do the same next year.
"We will also spend money wisely – we will not increase councillors allowances for the next four years and I think people trust us to strike the balance better.
"The face of local Government will change massively over the next four years because of finances. Historically, Labour's solution has been to spend, the Conservatives to cut, and we look at things compassionately and properly.
"We are about value for money, but saving money by selling care homes, closing libraries or selling parkland isn't the right solution.
"Finding the savings needed will be hard, but in some departments we must invest to save, such as on children and young people. With more spending in the short term on bringing in carers, we could cut the agency staff bill which would save in the years ahead."