City Council eliminated its $4 million deficit early Tuesday morning with a 6-3 vote to adopt a budget that increases the city’s portion of the property tax by 7.2 percent, cuts some social services and decreases non-union employee raises.

After months of discussion, the council chose the proposal presented by Alds. Arthur Newman (1st), Melissa Wynne (3rd) and Gene Feldman (9th) at a Feb. 18 budget workshop. Although the budget restores complete funding for the Fleetwood Jourdain Theatre, the budget cuts $190,000 from mental health grants and Community Purchased Services, which is half of what City Manager Roger Crum recommended, and $72,400 from the police youth-victims services. It also includes a 2 percent decrease in the raises of non-union city employees.

The budget also includes a $400,000 grant to the $6 million capital improvements fund. From this grant, $150,000 will go to improve street lighting, in addition to the $450,000 already reserved for lighting in the budget. Another $90,000 from the grant will go to improve streets at Mason Park, and the rest will be reserved for future allocation.

Although the budget was passed without any amendments, not all aldermen supported the final outcome. Alds. Edmund Moran (6th), Stephen Engelman (7th) and Ann Rainey (8th) voted against the budget.

“When I look at this budget, I think it’s one of the worst budgets I have ever seen,” Rainey said.

Rainey said she objected to the substantial increase in property tax, which would raise the total tax bill by 1.3 percent, or about $108 per year for the owner of a $300,000 home.

Feldman said there was no simple solution to the budget crisis and that increasing property taxes is just as hard as cutting programs.

“We arrived at this budget over a lot of discussion and debate,” Feldman said. “This is a budget for the entire city.”

Other aldermen supporting the budget proposal said they looked to a property tax increase and raises in parking fines and fees for recycling and other programs in order to pay for items that residents said were important to the community.

“If you want quality you have to spend for it,” Newman said.

But several residents who spoke at the meeting criticized the council for increasing property taxes instead of instituting a proposed monthly $5 employee head tax for all businesses with five or more persons.

“It’s like a big sign to Evanston residents that says, ‘Move out,'” said Evanston resident David Johnson, who wore a shirt promoting the Fair Share Action Committee, which was founded to negotiate financial contributions to the city from Northwestern.

Moran said the budget failed to address the city’s financial problems on a long-term basis. He said he has suggested cutting personnel and the cost of police and fire service for years.

But Moran said other aldermen refuse to consider reducing the number of fire stations or scaling back projects he called “overpriced,” such as the new Levy Center.

“I’d like to engage in a meaningful discussion, but I don’t think we can,” he said. “Literally, we are spending money on projects like drunken sailors.”

Engelman said the council needed to look at making more cuts in programs in order create a solution that would be sustainable.

Moran said that not dealing with these budget problems will continue to cause the city problems and could result in a larger property tax hike next year.

“The light at the end of tunnel is the train that’s coming down the tracks,” he said.