The Mobile City Council this morning agreed to raise the city’s sales tax rate from 4 cents on the dollar to 5, ending a logjam that has bogged down city business for months and clearing the way for a balanced budget.

The impasse was broken when Gina Gregory, who had previously opposed a tax increase, agreed to the increase, provided it included a sunset provision and part of it was earmarked to specific purposes such as capital improvement and economic development. She was joined by council members William Carroll, Fred Richardson, Reggie Copeland and Jermaine Burrell.

Council members Bess Rich and John Williams voted against the tax increase.

Gregory said that, faced with the choice of raising the tax and continuing to force police and fire employees to work with substandard equipment, she would choose the tax increase.

“It would be foolish and wrong not to do what I have to to support the people who protect us,” she said.