As treasurer I have been OK with not putting levies up for the last several years even though the budget has been a little higher each year. IE we have had a deliberate slight deficit budget. The result is that our Admin fund balance has reduced over a few years from being about 50% of the annual budget to being about a third of the annual budget. This was conservative since our managing agent advised that maintaining a balance of around 25% was normal and adequate. This year we will recommend a return to levies matching the anticipated expenditure. I would not ever recommend reducing levies but you might sometimes have them stay the same for a while and I don't think they have to exactly match anticipated expenditure if you have more or less than is an appropriate admin fund balance to maintain.
At your AGM you would vote to approve or amend a budget and levies. Any owner is welcome to question the numbers but as a treasurer I would much rather that someone disputing the EC's recommendation discuss it with me before the meeting.