MANSFIELD - Town officials put off making a decision April 9 on how to balance next year's budget, but outlined a possible compromise that could save 19 teachers from being laid off.

The finance committee proposed withdrawing $450,000 from the town's rainy day fund and transferring it to the school department to help close a $900,000 budget deficit for 2008-09.

The committee also proposed cutting $300,000 from the proposed school budget and $150,000 from the proposed municipal budget.

School committee members said they would need time to review the proposal before deciding whether they could support it. But Chairwoman Jean Miller said, "This is better than anything I expected to get, so I thank you."

At a rare joint meeting of selectmen and school and finance committees, 18 officials debated at length how to address the growing gap between tax revenue and the cost of employee salaries and benefits. Eighty-six percent of the town's $70 million budget is dictated in advance by union contracts and other obligations, finance committee member Andres Gazzolo said.

Selectmen Chairman Louis Amoruso said the continuing budget crunch means Mansfield taxpayers will almost certainly be asked to approve a property tax override at some point in the next few years.

The finance committee also proposed a long list of fiscal discipline commitments they want made by town and school officials, including indexing employee salary increases to revenue growth. But Superintendent Brenda Hodges said the department's attorney thinks such a stipulation would violate labor law.

Nonetheless, most of the officials agreed that more must be done to rein in salary costs, although school committee member Steve Greenberg also expressed concern that doing so could make it harder for Mansfield to attract high-quality workers.