Curious about how County Executive Maggie Brooks will plug a possible $29 million gap? A new budget survey on the county's website offers some insight.

The survey asks residents to choose from six cost-cutting possibilities to close the gap: $12.8 million could be saved by eliminating operation of the county's parks and the zoo, $20 million could be saved by laying off 600 county employees, $31 million could be saved by cuts to public safety services like the 911 center or sheriff's road patrol, and $7.8 million could be saved by cutting funding for Rochester Central Library and the county system's Library Central Service, the survey says.

The survey also asks residents to weigh in on three ways to raise revenues: raising the sales tax, raising taxes on alcohol and tobacco purchases, or increasing local user fees like golf or zoo fees.

Separate from the survey, some other ideas are making the rounds. Among them is charging Safety Net costs back to municipalities. Safety Net is one of New York's two welfare programs.

"Everything's on the table," Brooks said during a brief interview last week.

Brooks also plans forums and is holding virtual town hall meetings - essentially conference calls where residents can ask questions.

The last time the county solicited significant input on the budget, many of the ideas it gathered were ignored, says Democratic Legislator Paul Haney. In 2006, the county held forums and Brooks formed a Budget Advisory Team.

"Talk about a rehash," Haney says.