In recent weeks, the City Council has agreed to put two tax increases on the April ballot — an economic development sales tax and a property tax raising roughly $1.5 million per year.

The city’s firefighters may also form a fire protection district, leaving Ferguson without the cost of its own fire department, saving another $2.2 million annually.

A statement from Ferguson described the negotiations as hard fought but having occurred in good faith.

“This agreement, if approved, avoids the time and cost of litigation and allows the City to continue its focus to ensure constitutional policing and court practices, and thus provides these benefits to the citizens of Ferguson,” the statement said.

U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, said he was pleased with the amount of ground the agreement covered.

“It addresses all of the concerns of the Ferguson community, the people that were victimized by the structure of government in Ferguson, by the police department,” Clay said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

But he brushed off complaints about cost, saying, “if they had conducted themselves in a manner that abided by the Constitution of the United States and the state of Missouri, they would not be in this position.”