PROVIDENCE — Mayor David N. Cicilline wants to lower the amount the city pays into the pension fund to save the city about $9 million this year.

It is one of a number of cost-cutting measures and revenue-generating ideas that Cicilline is proposing after Providence suffered a drop from last year’s $624 million in revenue to this year’s anticipated $616 million.

Cicilline could lower the city’s annual pension payment by lengthening the amount of time the city projects to pay off its $716 million unfunded accrued liability, which is the gap between the pension system’s assets and its obligations.

The city is proposing to contribute $51 million this year from the city’s general revenue toward pension costs, down from about $60 million last year.

The bulk of the annual contribution, $41.4 million, will go toward fully funding the system, but at a slower rate than it projected when it was putting about $51 million in. That pushes back the date the city hopes to close its unfunded liability by eight years, to 2039.

City Council Majority Leader Terrance M. Hassett, a Smith Hill Democrat, says the council will weigh the risks before it signs off on the mayor’s proposal. “Any time you start to tamper with the pension system, you have to be cautious,” he said. “My concern is that if you reduce the payment now, will it just go up next year?”

The council’s Finance Committee is deliberating the mayor’s budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. It is scheduled to hold a public hearing and a possible vote on the budget on Thursday night in City Hall. The full council must set a tax levy by July 31.

There are no federal, state or city requirements preventing the city from extending its amortization period, which is the time it takes to liquidate its unfunded liability, according to the city’s actuary, Buck Consultants.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board, a private agency, though, recommends basing government pension expenses on a 30-year schedule.

State lawmakers in Massachusetts and Vermont have approved similar proposals to close budget shortfalls, as has Baltimore County, in Maryland, according to Buck Consultants. The City of Providence did this in 2001, stretching its amortization by two years.

But there are potential drawbacks, the chief of which is delaying resolution of the city’s pension liability.

This is a concern for Providence since the city is already drawing nearly 62 percent of its obligation to pensioners from its yearly contribution to the system, meaning it is putting money into the system almost as fast as it is being paid out.

Allowing that practice to continue may have an impact on the city’s bond rating, which is important in determining interest rates when the city looks to take out a loan or issue a bond.

“The rating agencies will perceive this as a step back in the city’s commitment to fully fund the plan,” wrote Daniel W. Sherman, of Buck Consultants, in a memo to City Director of Administration Richard Kerbel.

Sherman, an actuary, says the city should also expect to contribute more to the pension system next year, since the system’s investments have suffered loses, as all pension systems have, in the recession.

According to the city, the account was valued at $240 million as of June 24, a growth of about 3.5 percent from the start of the calendar year but a drop of about $3 million from mid-November.

pmarcelo@projo.com