Garland residents will get to sound off next week on a proposed budget that includes a one-penny property tax rate increase, fee hikes and service cuts, including the closure of a library.

The city would also suspend funding for Star Spangled Fourth. City Council member Laura Perkins Cox said private sponsors are welcome to pay for the celebration, but the city can't justify spending for a big party in hard economic times.

Despite the pain, Garland officials said they were pleased with the proposed 2008-09 budget, especially in light of the economic downturn that had confronted the city with a projected $5 million budget shortfall.

"I think everyone knows this is a very challenging economic landscape, and the City Council has been consistent in telling the city manager that the city had to live within its means on the operations side of the budget," Ms. Cox said.

Indeed, City Manager Bill Dollar's proposal has no tax rate increase on the operations and maintenance side, but it does include a 1.1-cent hike for debt service, for a total rate of 69.96 cents per $100 of property value.

The increase is partly offset, however, by a $1,000 increase in the homestead exemption, to $8,000. The owner of a $100,000 home who took the standard exemption would pay $643.63, $3.23 more than last year.

The proposed fee increases would take a bigger bite out of many homeowners' finances. Water and sewer hikes would bring the monthly total for the typical residential user to $63.21, up $4.85.

And a $1.84 hike for trash and recycling went into effect Aug. 1, taking that bill to $18.09.

Public hearings on the proposed budget and tax rate increase are scheduled for Tuesday and Aug. 28, with a vote to adopt a budget Sept. 2. The spending plan would take effect with the start of the new fiscal year Oct. 1.

The proposed general fund budget of $133.1 million is a decrease of $169,500 from the current general fund budget. But the proposed combined budget of $590.3 million – which also includes debt service, utility, enterprise and grant funds – represents an increase of $48.3 million.

Officials attributed most of the increase to rising energy costs for the electric utility and cash transfers to the capital improvements program.

Mr. Dollar noted that careful monitoring by the city's budget staff resulted in action last year to deal with difficult economic times brought on by such factors as the mortgage crisis. He said the city implemented a hiring freeze late last summer and began working to trim capital improvement spending for the coming fiscal year.

He said that while the proposed budget eliminates or leaves open 53 city positions, almost all of them are already vacant.

Among other proposed cuts are closing of the Ridgewood Branch Library, reduced hours at the Granger Recreation Center and reduced use of overtime.

"It is certainly always painful to cut libraries and parks," Ms. Cox said. "It's also difficult to ask for sacrifices in the public safety departments.

"However, given the current economic climate, we no longer have the luxury of any sacred cows. All departments have had to look for efficiencies and economies. And I applaud their efforts."

The proposed budget calls for taking two fire engines out of service but also calls for placing an ambulance at each of the city's 11 fire stations. Currently, eight stations have ambulances.

Mr. Dollar noted that almost 80 percent of calls received by the Fire Department are for EMS service and said the change would help the city better cover those calls.

"It's a change, and change is hard," Mr. Dollar said. "This has been a challenging and difficult time, and everybody has risen to the occasion on this."