KINGSTON - Concessions on behalf of the police and fire unions allowed Kingston City Council members to adopt a budget for 2010 on Thursday night with no layoffs and a nine percent property tax increase.

According to Council President James Noble, the council was able to avoid layoffs while passing a budget that is slightly smaller than the mayor’s proposal mainly due to Mayor James Sottile’s negotiations with police and fire’s respective unions.

“From the mayor’s budget, I believe we probably saved $139,000, but the firemen have all been reinstated and the police department has been reinstated and we reinstated some part-time help, and we also made some other positions that were deleted, full-time again, like the rec leaders,” he said

Local firefighters agreed to defer $250,000 in contractual pay increases and medical bonuses until 2011 to prevent layoffs in their department, said Shane Gallo of the Kingston City Corporation Counsel’s Office, while police agreed to defer a total of $600,000 consisting of a 3.25 percent salary increase and their $25,000 educational tuition reimbursement.

He said that in addition to the givebacks, both departments will be collaborating their dispatch responsibilities to save enough money to avoid additional losses of jobs. “In exchange for all of those concessions the assurances are being provided from this memorandum of agreement that there will be no layoffs of six police officers and three dispatchers.”