Mayor Sam Katz and some city councillors say the new funding deal promised in last week's provincial budget may not be so new after all.

The province pledged to share a portion of its fuel tax revenue, which bumped its funding to the city up by $11 million to $151 million.

But councillors, including budget boss Bill Clement, say they've begun deciphering the province's complicated web of funding programs and the city may have been too quick to praise the budget as the first step toward a new deal for Winnipeg.

"I'm disappointed with the level of funding from the province," said Clement. "When the announcement was made, a lot of people had microphones shoved in their face and on the face of it, it sounded like a good thing. In actual fact, it's not much more tan we anticipated receiving."

Katz used more diplomatic language, saying the deal is "not everything it appears to be."

Clement said the city was already counting on most of the $11 million and had included it in its 2005 budget. Only $4 million — cash that was part of a deal to share fuel tax revenue — is new.

But Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Scott Smith said the city may just be confused by old money that's been shuffled into new funds.

"When you look at the full enchilada, funding to the city is up eight per cent no matter how you move things around," he said. "It's one of the biggest increases we've seen in a decade."

The city has long demanded a share of the provincial gas tax in addition to the grants and funding it already receives. Instead, the province rolled several existing grants into one, the size of which will match the revenue from three cents from the fuel tax.

But Clement and Katz say the fuel tax deal isn't as sweet as it sounds. Two cents come from the gas tax and but but one cent comes from the less lucrative diesel tax.

One cent from the gas tax raises about $13.8 million province wide. One cent from the diesel tax raises only about $5 million.

And, provincial finance experts said on budget day that fuel tax revenue only grows between 0.5 and 1 per cent per year, which would give the city at best about $1.5 million in new money over the next five years.

Conservative Party Leader Stuart Murray said Winnipeg and other municipalities need access to a revenue source such as the PST that grows with the economy.

The fuel tax deal doesn't come anywhere close to raising $7.4 billion the Association of Manitoba Municipalities estimates is needed to tackle the backlog of road, bridge and building repairs in the province's towns and cities.