L.A. mayoral candidate and current city controller Wendy Greuel has laid out a framework for improving the city's budget savings by upwards of $175 million.

Surrounded by business leaders, Greuel outlined her plans for those at downtown's Central Library. The proposed budget plan comes in response to months of criticism that both Greuel and her opponent for the mayoral position, Councilmen Eric Garcetti, have not done enough to explain how they will cover an expected city deficit of up to $165 million.

"We have to stop the cuts and the crisis," Greuel said, "and look at how we're going to deal with this budget."

Greuel has laid out a budget plan that would, rather than simply cut funding, focus more on ways for the city to raise more revenue. Proposed ideas include both raising the amount that city employees contribute to their health benefits and instituting parking lot collections.

The city controller also wants to start rewarding city contracts to more L.A. based firms in order to keep the city's economy strong, a move she believes could bring in $10 million. Furthermore, by also changing the city's cellular plan, Greuel believes the city could save over $12 million.

Not everybody believes that Greuel can back up her talk with real results, however. Unsurprisingly, her opponent in the mayoral race Eric Garcetti believes that her plan has no basis in reality and would not work.

"The pension reforms he negotiated have saved the city $308 million to date," Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman said. "In contrast, Ms. Greuel's topline recommendations would provide no savings to the general fund - it's a fake plan."

Greuel has already won the support of two major business groups, the Central City Association and the PAC for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Garcetti has won the backing of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

The two candidates are scrambling to lobby for support as the May 21 mayoral runoff date approaches. Neither Greuel nor Garcetti won a sizable amount of votes in March's primary, with Garcetti getting 33% of the votes to Greuel's 29%. The turnout for that vote was a mere 18%, and so the runoff could easily go either way with an increase in voters.