TROY – The City Council gave preliminary approval Thursday to a new trash fee that will balance the city’s 2018 budget and create the possibility of the state providing funding to level out the city’s long-term debt payments from its 1990s financial crisis.

In a series of 5-4 votes, a bipartisan Republican-Democratic council coalition adopted the measures needed to lead to a final vote on Dec. 29 that will close the $2.9 million revenue hole in next year’s budget.

“It’s the end of the year. We need to make a pragmatic business decision,” Republican Councilman John Donohue said.

The votes came together after Mayor Patrick Madden, a Democrat, countered Republican Council President Carmella Mantello’s move stop a special Finance Committee meeting he called Wednesday to deal with the budget crisis. Mantello cited the charter saying the mayor couldn’t call a committee meeting.

Instead, the mayor called a special City Council meeting at which his coalition of five council members voted to call an immediate Finance Committee meeting. That’s when the 5-4 votes took place.

The city will have a trash fee of $160 per residential unit in 2018 and cut spending by $638,880. These two moves reduce the budget to $73 million from $73.6 million and raise revenues, filling in the fiscal hole.

Madden said with the city falling under the state’s tax levy, the state Financial Restructuring Board may consider spending up to $1.2 million so the city will not have to deal with increases in payment of its outstanding Troy Municipal Assistance Corp. debt of $24.6 million.

Donohue and fellow Republican Councilman Dean Bodnar joined Democratic Councilman Robert Doherty, Councilwoman Erin Sullivan-Teta and Councilwoman Lynn Kopka is supporting the budget moves. Doherty, who played a role in assisting Madden, said the City Council needs to act responsibility and enact a balanced budget.

Councilman Mark McGrath condemned the trash fee as a hidden tax. Douglas Marx, an owner of two rental units, described the trash fee as a regressive tax hurting the city’s poorest residents.

McGrath and Mantello were joined by fellow Republicans Councilman Jim Gulli and Councilwoman Kim Ashe-McPherson in opposing the budget moves.

The city is supposed to create a trash reduction plan with the goal of cutting what heads to the dump. This is expected to lower disposal costs. The city must complete this study in 2018 before the one-year trash fee expires.

The City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Friday Dec. 29 at City Hall to cast the final votes to formally enact the trash fee and balance the budget.