SCHENECTADY - A divided City Council adopted the 2018 city budget on Tuesday, making minor changes to the spending plan before approving in with a 4-3 vote.

The $85.24 million spending plan features a 1 percent property tax reduction for city homeowners.

It brings down the tax rate from $13.21 to $13.07 per $1,000 of assessed value. For a home assessed at $130,000, the municipal portion of the tax bill will drop by $18.

The changes to the budget were the addition of $52,000 to the golf fund and $2,859 to the revenue line for Community Development Block Grants.

City Council President Leesa Perazzo's recommendations on everything from more closely examining payment-in-lieu-of-taxes programs to discussion of one of the mayor's department heads receiving a 6 percent pay hike were met with silence from most on the panel.

"I would have more, but I didn't have an opportunity to go into our funds," said Perazzo, who Monday lashed out at Majority Leader Ed Kosiur and Democrats John Polimeni, Karen Zalewski-Wildzunas and John Mootooveren for moving up the adoption vote to Tuesday instead of the Oct. 30 date she insists they had all initially agreed on.

"I'm fine with the budget as we have it," said Kosiur, who complained about the "nickel and diming" of the budget.

He lauded Mayor Gary McCarthy and the finance department for proposing what he considered a responsible budget.

When it came time to vote, Councilwoman Marion Porterfield raised questions about the city's agreement with Rivers Casino under which the city pays for the police who work at the casino and then gets reimbursed by the casino. She worried about liability and the impact the deal would have on city taxpayers.

Porterfield, Perazzo and Councilman Vince Riggi, an independent voter and the only non-Democrat on the council, voted against the budget.

Riggi said he agreed with the spending plan "in theory" but lamented "discretionary raises for people that are supervisors" when blue-collar workers who do the "grunt work" are working under expired contracts.

He also mentioned the 2014 resolution city leaders passed pledging that if Schenectady was awarded the casino, the money it generated would be used exclusively for property tax relief.

Mootooveren said the budget provides property tax relief, renews the infrastructure and maintains municipal services.

While not mentioning her by name, it was clear that Polimeni had Perazzo in his cross hairs when he spoke in support of the budget.

He stressed there was ample opportunity during several meetings to weigh in and ask questions about the budget. He also said that council members could have talked to other members with an expertise in economics and finance.

"We all asked hard questions and had them answered during meetings. Someone didn't, they didn't come prepared," he said. "To say that this budget process was rushed, is just a fabrication."

Perazzo, who wondered out loud why some of her fellow Democrats voted to hold the budget vote Tuesday instead of next week, countered that she had gone through the budget process six previous times.

"Yes, this process was broken this time, it was strong-armed by four people," she said, adding that the timeline was agreed on, "then forced to be changed on Monday with no respect for the fact that I'm the chair of finance and that I wasn't prepared to fully review parts of this budget."

She also told Polimeni she wasn't going to work on his timeline and had budget experience that trumped his.

"I'm concerned that we didn't do all the hard work that we needed to do on this budget," she said.