As Christmas approaches, Roanoke City Council offered up its own wish list of sorts to the city's state legislative delegation Monday.

Sen. John Edwards and Dels. William Fralin and Onzlee Ware met with the council and the city school board to hear a variety of legislative requests, ranging from the normal we-need-more-money pitch, to some not so ordinary, such as the push to allow localities to impose a refundable fee on each cigarette sold -- to be refunded when the cigarette butt is returned. And the city school board has an out-of-the-box idea of its own: tying driver's licenses to progress toward graduation.

Getting such requests passed is difficult under normal circumstances. But a faltering economy could make that even tougher next year; legislators received the news last month they may be faced with a $3.5 billion budget shortfall.

"We all have initiatives, we all have things we want to do, and they're probably not going to happen this year," Edwards said.

Not only that, but Edwards then offered a warning of potential hard times ahead: "I understand this may be the first year in memory that education may actually have to be cut."

School board Vice Chairman Jason Bingham said he realized legislators may not be able to fill schools' stockings with promises of new funding. Instead, he asked that they help schools get their May standardized testing results before the new school year starts, or at least grant local boards the authority to make their own cuts.

But even granting new authority to localities can be tricky.

"Anything that happens with a bill from a city or county, most of the time it affects not only our locality but other localities," Ware said. "That's where the problems usually lie. It may be good for Roanoke, but the worst thing for other localities."

Also, if a bill has failed before, it's less likely that legislators will continue to file it unless they're passionate, stubborn or they see new evidence it may pass. For that reason, neither Fralin, Ware nor Edwards seemed to have too much interest in Roanoke's request for a bill to give localities the option to pass smoking bans.

Nor did they offer much encouragement toward changing Roanoke's charter -- which would require a two-thirds majority in both houses -- to give Roanoke the option for advisory referenda. Edwards sponsored a version of that bill in 2006, but it was shot down in the Senate.

Fralin, who wryly described the council and school board agendas as "ambitious," did cite a couple of items that he will consider, including the legislation to link the granting of driver's licenses with progress toward high school graduation.

He said he'd also consider the bill requiring the state to report May's standardized test scores by Aug. 1, which would give schools the chance to respond before the new school year.

But Fralin said the budget shortfall could scuttle even that bill.

"The problem is this year -- just a little inside baseball -- all they have to do is get the department of planning and budget to put a number on there and say that's going to cost tax dollars, and it will be hard to get it passed."

In other business:

• The council was presented with three options for the swimming pool at Washington Park: a $589,000 option that includes repairs only; a $1.9 million option that would shorten the swimming lanes while adding a 620-square-foot "sprayground"; and a $2.6 million option that would completely restructure the pool into a small water park with two lap lanes, multiple waterslides and a "lily pad walk."

City officials said they viewed the third option as a regional draw that would boost the park's revenues and increase pool attendance from about 2,000 to 50,000 visits annually.

Mayor David Bowers said "the public is going to be heard" before the council makes any decision on the pool's future.

• The council voted 7-0 to raise the caps on a real estate tax abatement program so more city residents can qualify. The ordinance raises the household gross income cap from $34,000 to $42,000 and the household net worth cap from $125,000 to $160,000. Those who qualify and apply to the Commissioner of the Revenue's office between April 1 and June 30 will have their real estate valuations of qualifying properties frozen so they are not part of the city's annual assessments.

• The council was briefed on a number of bridge renovation and replacement projects scheduled for the next two to three years. One of the earliest will be to cover the Walnut Street bridge with a layer of latex-modified concrete. That work, scheduled for late spring or early summer of 2009, will close the bridge for an anticipated four weeks, with motorists forced to detour on alternate routes.