An exhausted City Council completed work Monday on a new 2019-20 spending plan for Richmond that calls for a 3.6 percent, or $26 million, increase in city spending and is balanced with the imposition of the city’s first tax on cigarettes — a 50 cent levy on each pack effective July 1— and a hike in utility rates.

Scrapping Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s request for a 9 cent increase in the tax on real estate that he stumped for and insisted was required to pay for his priorities, City Council, instead, pared about $11 million from his proposed spending blueprint while embracing virtually all of his priorities, including expanded funding for city schools and increased funding for GRTC to improve regular bus service.

In all, the council is proposing a $746.2 million budget, or about $3,258 for each of the nearly 229,000 city residents. That’s an increase of about $114 per person from the current $720 million 2018-19 budget. The mayor had proposed a $757.9 million spending plan, or $3,309 per person, based on expectations of a property tax increase.

“Yes, we completed our work and have a balanced budget, and that’s a good thing. But people have to realize we had to leave a lot of things out,” said 9th District City Councilman Michael J. Jones, a supporter of the mayor’s tax increase and the lone member to respond to a Free Press request for comment. “You get what you pay for. You can’t get something for nothing, and people have to understand that.”

The council expects to introduce the amended budget ordinances on Monday, May 6, and take final action on Monday, May 13.

The council’s budget plan includes maintaining the current property tax rate of $1.20 per $100 of assessed value, a rate that has been in place for a decade and remains the lowest in city history.

The vote is actually perfunctory as the council is required to pass a schools budget and set the tax rate by May 15, meaning there would be no time to amend the proposal even if the members were so inclined.

Ignoring last week’s blowup that threatened his relationship with the council, along with his unsuccessful bid for a property tax increase, Mayor Stoney used Twitter to praise the council for reaching “a consensus to advance priorities in my budget.”

Topping the list is extra funding for Richmond Public Schools that seemed a distant prospect when the council began deliberations, despite lobbying by the School Board, Superintendent Jason Kamras and advocates who urged the governing body to find the money.

The council’s budget plan includes a nearly $18 million increase in operating funds for RPS, the biggest jump in years. About $6 million would cover the local share of raising teacher and staff pay and the remaining $11.7 million would pay for the Dreams4RPS educational upgrades Mr. Kamras has touted.

The council put the $11.7 million in a special fund that can be tapped only through requests from RPS and the city showing the programs and services on which each dollar will be spent, a requirement that five council members insisted upon.

Separately, the council endorsed the mayor’s proposal to provide the school system with $19 million in mostly borrowed capital funds to replace old roofs, broken air conditioning equipment and aged boilers and to meet other maintenance needs for aging schools. That’s the single largest appropriation for such needs in at least 30 years and possibly longer.

The list of items the council funded also includes:

• Providing GRTC with an extra $800,000 to extend service on three routes into the late evening and to link Downtown and two East End public housing communities with the newly opened grocery store at 25th Street and Fairmount Avenue in Church Hill.

• Awarding the Department of Public Works $15 million for street paving, the largest appropriation in years, and at least $1 million more for sidewalk improvements.

• Appropriating $465,000 to begin implementing a pilot program aimed at preventing evictions, with help from Housing Opportunities Made Equal and Central Virginia Legal Aid, which is stationing an attorney at the John Marshall Courts Building to represent people facing the loss of their homes.

• Ensuring city workers receive a 3 percent wage increase, the largest in at least a decade.

• Setting aside $200,000 for a study examining the structure and efficiency of city government and another $150,000 to pay an independent consultant to help City Council review development proposals, including the plan to replace the closed Richmond Coliseum.

The council struggled to get the budget done without raising other taxes, including the city’s admissions tax, but was rescued by turning up extra revenue.

That includes an increase in the projected amount of real estate tax that is to be collected based on the increase in assessed values. Even with dumping the mayor’s tax increase, the council was relying on a $22 million increase in revenue from increased property valuations, but was able to add another $6.5 million based on an update from City Assessor Richie McKeithen.

In addition, the mayor left out any projection of income from auction sales of tax delinquent properties that City Attorney Allen L. Jackson handles. Initially, the council gained $2.5 million. That was bumped up to $3 million after the council agreed to suspend for a year an ordinance requiring development agreements with the buyers, which Mr. Jackson said was doubling the time it took to prepare properties for sale.

Efforts by two members of the council to eliminate a proposed 15.5 percent total increase in utility rates were rebuffed by the majority after learning that it would mean a $4 million reduction in the Utility Department’s payment in place of taxes into the general fund.

Council’s adoption of the cigarette tax, projected to provide about $3 million in new revenue, was a victory for outgoing 5th District Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, who has been pushing for the city to join virtually all other cities in Virginia in imposing the tax.

Just last year, a split council rejected a similar cigarette tax. But rather than find budget cuts, the council majority this time chose to go along with the mayor’s recommendation, despite opposition from Philip Morris workers and owners of convenience stores.

Councilwomen Kim B. Gray, 2nd District, and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, warned their colleagues that the new tax could bring in less revenue as Richmond smokers may travel to nearby stores in Chesterfield and Henrico counties to purchase less expensive cigarettes.

With cigarette sales representing up to one-third of sales at such stores, the loss of customers could lead to a loss of jobs. Ms. Gray projected that up to 100 people could be laid off.

The tax ended up winning the support of the majority after Council President Cynthia I. Newbille proposed that $600,000 of the revenue go to a smoking cessation initiative to be spearheaded by the Richmond City Health District.

The final step to completion came after Lenora Reid, the city’s chief financial officer, and the mayor’s budget staff agreed to support reductions in spending on capital needs in exchange for the council dropping a main proposal from 3rd District Councilman Chris A. Hilbert to pare departmental spending by $7.5 million.

“It’s the lesser of two evils,” said Ms. Reid, who teamed with staff during a lunch break to offer up cuts.

Among the items dumped was $1 million to be used for designing replacements for four aging fire stations.