A Boston city councilor is calling for a hiring freeze amid the economic uncertainty created by steadily declining commercial property values, saying her proactive approach would be aimed at avoiding future layoffs and budget cuts.

Erin Murphy, an at-large councilor, plans to petition her colleagues to approve a resolution Wednesday that would show the Council’s support for a temporary hiring freeze for city departments through the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

The hiring freeze would exempt public safety departments, including Boston Police, Fire and EMS, youth employment and seasonal hires, such as lifeguards and camp counselors, Murphy wrote in a non-binding resolution that follows the governor’s plan to tighten state hiring last week.

“Personnel spending, which includes salaries and benefits, is our largest expense accounting for more than 45% of the budget,” Murphy wrote. “A hiring freeze would allow us to reevaluate our current workforce and conserve our resources until we have a better understanding of how much revenue loss we will have due to a decrease in property tax revenue.”

Murphy points to the city’s financial stability being historically tied to its “large and growing tax base.” City finances have also received a boost in the past several years from federal pandemic relief aid, she said, a figure she put at $552 million, while also citing the $431 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds awarded to the Boston Public Schools.

Both federal aid sources have been exhausted, and a 20% increase in office vacancies are eroding the city’s commercial tax base. The latter has the potential to create an immediate budget crunch, given that 75% of the city’s revenue comes from property taxes, 36% of which comes from the commercial sector, she said.