Tuesday night, the Killeen City Council voted to adopt the Fiscal Year budget for 2017.

This comes after months of discussing how to overcome a $7.2 million shortfall.

The council voted on several ways to balance the budget Tuesday.

This included a 2.5 percent cut to all city department budgets, a decrease in city employee overtime, and a 50 percent cut to the Killeen Economic Development Corporation and the Killeen Chamber of Commerce.

Before the council approved the FY17 budget, residents voiced their opinions during the second and final public hearing.

Many said they were concerned that the council was going to cut the library department’s budget by $537,000, meaning they may shut down the Copper Mountain Library.

After discussing the item, the council decided to cut the library’s budget by only $130,000.

City staff said this means the Copper Mountain branch will stay open, and the library will not have to fire any employees or cut down on hours of operation. They also said Copper Mountain will keep its accreditation.

The council also voted to reduce the fleet replacement budget, reduce funding for vacant city positions, eliminate discounts for property owners who pay their taxes early, and cut $60,000 from Killeen Volunteers Inc.

After the cuts, the council was left with a nearly $1 million shortfall, which will be taken from the general reserve fund.

"We're going to provide the services to the city, happy as we can be for that. Going to get started here in a couple of weeks working on the 18 budget,” Killeen City Council Member Jim Kilpatrick said.

Despite the cuts, residents say they are pleased with the budget’s outcome, mainly because the council did not increase taxes.

"And we actually assessed what cuts need to be made in our current budget, without taking away the services and resources that we have here in the city of Killeen for the citizens here,” Killeen resident Chalitta Moore said.

Kilpatrick said the council will start looking at the 2018 budget in the next few weeks.