PROVIDENCE — The City Council last night passed what council members called the toughest, most unpalatable budget in 15 years, including broad cuts to the School Department, the maximum allowable tax increase, and cuts to basic city services such as police and fire.

And they cast much of the blame for the city’s problems on the General Assembly, and specifically the city’s own delegation, which some said had failed to stand up for Providence.

The budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 received its first passage by a vote of 12 to 3, with Balbina A. Young, Joseph DeLuca, and John J. Lombardi voting against it.

The $616.7-million budget will require a second passage, scheduled for tomorrow night. “In my 13 years on the council, I have not seen a more difficult budget than the one before us tonight,” said Councilman Kevin Jackson.

In May, Mayor David N. Cicilline originally submitted a $625.9-million budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, but that budget did not receive the support the mayor had counted on at the Assembly, and the city soon found itself trying to climb out of a $27.8-million budget hole.

Earlier this month, Cicilline and members of the City Council submitted a revised budget that fills that hole by raising taxes by the maximum allowed, cutting heavily from the School Department, selling off city property, raising fees and making small budget cuts across the city worth millions of dollars.

Council Finance Chairman John J. Igliozzi implored his colleagues to pass the document last night, saying he understood what a difficult decision that was.

“I know it’s not easy, but we’re going to have to be leaders in this matter because the State House failed us, and we’re going to have to start making the tough decisions,” Igliozzi said.

The revamped $616.7-million budget includes a tax increase that will mean roughly a 4.25-percent increase in the average property-tax bill.

The amount of each property’s increase will also depend on the change in property value under the citywide property revaluation currently under way.

The city will also make $6.25 million in cuts from the schools, $800,000 from the Fire Department and $700,000 from the Police Department. On top of that, 16 vacant city positions will not be filled, for a savings of $825,000, and $4.6 million in unused city property will be sold.

The city also reduced benefits for judges and other political appointees and made one layoff, the council’s media director, Charlie Drago.

For the most part, there was no discussion of budget specifics last night. Council members instead spoke of the grand, structural problems Providence faces, and laid much of the blame for the specific budget problems with the Assembly.

Specifically, they targeted the city’s own delegation.

Cicilline’s original $625.9-million budget had relied on the legislature appropriating $7 million in additional direct state aid and then allowing Providence to levy $10.5 million in new fees.

But Assembly leaders had told Cicilline that this would be a tough budget year with little for the cities and towns, and that his package would not fare well.

He pushed it anyway, saying that Providence could not rely on the property tax to solve its woes. In the end, the city did worse than expected; not only did the Assembly reject the city’s request for the new fees, and not appropriate new state aid, but it actually reduced the city’s state aid for education by $6 million.

The combination of reduced state money and the failure of the city’s legislative package left Providence with a $27.8-million budget deficit.

Councilman Joseph DeLuca said the Providence delegation betrayed the city. He said the city needs to kick out the longtime members of its delegation, and replace them with new leaders who will push for the city’s interests, not the state’s.

“Let’s commit to vote against them, or at least not support them. Let’s put our money where our mouth is,” DeLuca said.

His statements received cheers and applause not only from the audience, but from most of the City Council as well.

“Our partnership with them — it seems that they no longer want that partnership,” Igliozzi said at another point in the meeting.

The months-long budget process was complicated by the citywide property revaluation that took place this spring. As part of the revaluation, the average value of all city property increased, and the tax rate had to be adjusted downward to compensate

The old rate was $30.23 per $1,000 of assessed residential valuation, and $37.72 per $1,000 of assessed commercial value. The new rates will be $22.61 for residential property and $26.49 for commercial property.

Those new rates factor in the 4.25-percent tax increase.

Across the city, the value of single-family homes increased by an average of 26 percent. But in some areas, like Smith Hill, Olneyville, and South Providence, it rose by 35 percent or more, while across the East Side, it rose by far less, between 12 and 18 percent.

For those in areas that increased dramatically, the revaluation amounted to another tax increase.

“It’s a double whammy for some people — a tax increase in the maximum amount, and then another one for some people whose home values went up two or three times,” Lombardi said in explaining why he could not support the budget. “I know there’s going to be a lot of for-sale signs in my neighborhood, especially among the commercial properties.”

More than 100 residents packed the council chambers last week to protest the budget at a public hearing, but last night, only a handful were in attendance.

When the budget was passed, some associated with the Olneyville Neighborhood Association started to chant, “We won’t pay, we won’t pay.” Members of the ONA had earlier vowed a tax strike, where they will not pay any new taxes

City resident Rochelle Lee said that with the tax increases and the revaluation, the city is balancing its budget on the backs of its poorest taxpayers — and at the same time reducing services. She said that she and others don’t feel like their voices are heard when they try to seek change.

“Suck it up, that’s their motto,” she said.

dbarbari@projo.com