POUGHKEEPSIE – To the average homeowner, property taxes will rise in 2009 by about $26 now that the Poughkeepsie Common Council Monday night adopted a new fiscal plan.

The council whittled roughly one percent from the tax rate originally proposed by the mayor by cutting a number of budgetary items including saving $110,000 but cutting the city’s legal staff from three attorneys to two.

Lawmakers also reduced police overtime slightly, but will keep an eye on the spending, said Council chairman Brian Doyle.

“From an overtime budget of over $1 million we cut $21,000, so that’s not a significant amount, and we also assured the police chief that if during the year he comes to us and says he is going to need more, we’ll make the appropriate budget adjustments that we need to make,” he said.

The Common Council also left four firefighter positions in the budget, but did not fund them, and cut spending in the Council and mayor’s office budgets.

The council did add $17,000 for youth programs, but reduced Public Works overtime and held off on purchasing some new equipment.