PAWTUCKET — Mayor James E. Doyle and his top aides have begun meeting with the city’s unions to discuss the drastic measures they say are necessary to balance the budget without a significant tax increase.

Harvey E. Goulet Jr., Doyle’s director of administration, said union leaders have been told that everything is on the table — a pay freeze, layoffs, furloughs and sharp increases in employee contributions to their health plans — to make it possible for the city to tighten its belt.

The grim message was conveyed at a meeting eight days ago with the heads of the police and firefighters unions, as well as with the heads of Local 3960, which represents professional and technical workers, and Local 1012 of AFSCME Council 94, which represents municipal employees.

This week, Goulet said, the administration will begin meeting with the unions one by one.

The city’s financial difficulties are due to deep cuts in state aid and the sharp plunge in property tax revenue that has resulted from the troubled real estate market.

The city is $2.3 million in the red and the School Department has a $2.8-million budget deficit, Finance Director Ronald L. Wunschel said.

Unless steps are taken quickly to eliminate the deficits, it will be extremely difficult, Wunschel said, to come up with a balanced budget for the 2009 fiscal year.

Goulet was optimistic that the unions representing police and firefighters and city workers will cooperate.

He was less sanguine about the School Department, which has been negotiating with city officials on how to resolve its deficit, so far without results.

The School Committee met in executive session a week ago to consider the administration’s suggestions for dealing with the budget crunch.

It didn’t act on any of the suggestions. Instead, it authorized its lawyer, Stephen Robinson, to send the city a written response.

City Solicitor Margaret M. Lynch-Gadaleta, who has been negotiating with Robinson, declined to disclose the response or detail the negotiations.

The outcome of the negotiations would be jeopardized if they were discussed before they are successfully concluded, Lynch said.

The City Council went into executive session Friday to meet with Lynch, Wunschel, Goulet, and Angel S. Garcia, the city’s personnel director, and Robert P. Brooks, the private lawyer who represents the city in talks with the unions.

The meeting was an opportunity for the council to get an update on the negotiations with the unions and the School Committee, and to stake out its position on the budget.

Although council members voted to seal the minutes of the executive session, most of their positions on budget matters are well known.

For example, John F. Barry III, the chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, is adamant that there be no tax increase.

Is that position realistic? Barry was asked after the meeting Friday.

“It may not be, but that’s got to be our goal,” he answered. “People are hurting.”

There have been sharp increases in the prices of gasoline and heating oil, Barry said.

At the same time, he said, the state, which is facing its own deficit, has tried to overcome its financial difficulties by cutting aid to education and revenue-sharing to cities and towns.

Under the circumstances, Goulet said, it may not be possible to balance the budget without raising taxes.

“I think it’s wishful thinking,” Goulet said of Barry’s demand there be no tax increase. “But we’re working hard to get it down to that –– to get it down to zero.”

jcastell@projo.com