EL PASO, Texas -- The El Paso County budget is millions of dollars in the red, and now county leaders are asking for help from the El Paso Sheriff's Officers Association.

The commissioners want the sheriff's office to make some kind of concession, and they are looking specifically at the pay raises officers and deputies would be receiving in the coming year.

Commissioner Anna Perez said the raises would total around $2.9 million. Right now, the county and the El Paso Sheriff's Officers Association are locked into a contract until 2012.

That contract includes other benefits from requirements for equipment and uniforms to incentives to keep the deputies working for the sheriff's office.

The commissioners KFOX spoke with said they are not seeking to cut the other benefits in the contract, but a series of meetings are now setup with the sheriff's association to hash out the details.

"We're in tough shape. We're in trouble here and we need their help," said Commissioner Dan Haggerty. "We need them to say, 'You know, perhaps, forgive the steps, forgive the increases for a year or something,' and maybe we can tag it on any number of arrangements that we can make."

"At the end of the day, I think they'll all be heroes as they usually are, as what law enforcement tends to be, and I'm feeling very positive that they will come forward and save the day and come help us out," said Perez.

Both Haggerty and Perez admitted the alternative if the association does not want to negotiate is layoffs, but they consider that a last option, adding that no one on the commission wants to affect service to the county.