JERSEY CITY — The City Council last week introduced a $588 million municipal budget for 2018, a plan that comes as residents hit by results of the property revaluation are clamoring for major spending cuts.

The budget total is largely unchanged from the one adopted in 2017, and that may not be enough for residents facing reval-related tax increases later this year. At a meeting about the reval at Casa Colombo in February, one resident demanded the city reconsider how it spends "every penny."

Council members said they haven't begun to review the budget in detail. Department heads generally go before council members to defend their budget requests, but those hearings have not been scheduled yet.

In an interview, Council President Rolando Lavarro said he understands residents' concerns about this year's budget in particular. Lavarro said it will be difficult to find areas to cut, describing the budget as "bare bones."

"I hear from residents that are, particularly those who are most hardest hit by the reval, that they want, if they're going to pay taxes as high as they're paying, that they should get value for their taxes, bang for their buck," Lavarro said. "And it's a fair critique and I'm making sure we're doing the best we can for their dollars."

The budget will not be finalized until later this year. In 2017, the council adopted the budget in July.

The highlights of this year's proposed budget, according to Mayor Steve Fulop's office, are the creation of a city Office of Sustainability, 24/7 parking enforcement and the hiring of 1,000 students for summer jobs that were previously funded privately. The budget includes $95 million in new property tax ratables, $2 million more in municipal court fines and $3 million more in revenue from payments in lieu of taxes, the mayor's office said in a press release.

"Our city serves as proof that cities can be both fiscally responsible and socially progressive," Fulop said in a statement. "This balance has been one of our major priorities, and as we start a second term, I promise to continue to move our city forward while focusing on long-term budgeting and management."

The budgets for the school district and county have not been finalized. Last week Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles said she expects school taxes to rise 2 percent.

Fulop has touted this year's budget as coming with "no municipal tax rate increase." While municipal taxes this year may not rise because of the city budget, some residents have been told to expect hikes related to the reval, the city's first since 1988. The taxes on Fulop's Ogden Avenue home are tentatively scheduled to rise by $6,300 annually because of its proposed new assessment.

Many of the eye-popping tax hikes that may result from the reval are on properties located Downtown. Its councilman, James Solomon, said he plans to analyze the budget and "ask tough questions" about what the city is asking the council to approve.

"Some folks in Ward E are looking for more in terms of tax cuts," Solomon told The Jersey Journal. "I'm going to look at it really, really closely."

Ward D Councilman Michael Yun, a Fulop critic, said it will be "crucial" this year more than ever to cut spending.

"Shutting our eyes and pretending there isn't room to tighten our belts would equate to throwing salt into the wounds of those already hurt the revaluation," Yun said in an email.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.