WEST GREENWICH — Struggling to live within the strictures of the state limits on property tax increases, the Town Council last night agreed to cut 2 of the Police Department’s 10 subordinate officers from the agency’s budget for next year, a move that might require the community to rely on state troopers for some coverage.

Before that personnel cut was decided, the budget proposed by Town Manager Kevin A. Breene stood at $17.6 million, a 4.8 percent, or $806,873 increase over current spending. The entire increase would have to be covered by local taxes.

But under the state cap for the coming year, West Greenwich can increase its local tax levy by only $702,000, for a total of $14.7 million. Shedding the two police officers, for a prospective savings of $160,000, would more than erase that gap; beyond that, the council plans to reallocate $200,000 that had been set aside for an eventual replacement of the municipal police headquarters.

The council last night adopted its final budget request, to be presented to the voters at the Financial Town Meeting on June 9.

The spending plan provides for cuts in virtually every department’s budget request. It slashes the public works budget proposal by $84,653, or 7 percent, mainly at the expense of items including repaving work and equipment upgrades. It also trims Planning Board personnel and vendor services and proposes eliminating the town’s summer recreation program.

It does provide for 3 percent raises to non-police town employees and does not cut the fire or rescue budgets. The town is in contract negotiations with the police officers union, which has been working without a contract since last July 1.

The council proposes to draw $400,000 from the town’s cash reserves.

“It’s a tough year but we will get through it,” Breene said.

What is making it a tough year, he and other town officials say, is the $557,446 increase in the local appropriation for the Exeter-West Greenwich regional school district, to finance the $31.6-million budget that the district taxpayers approved on Monday evening. Because of the tax cap, the increase leaves the town with only $144,554 in additional funds for all municipal agencies.

“It’s simply not enough money. There is not a lot of infrastructure here,” said Town Council President Thaylen Waltonen. “It’s not that we are picking on the police. We don’t have a recreation department to lay off four people.”

Police union leaders were dismayed by the council’s decision to eliminate two officers.

“I’m trying to protect two individuals … when there are other areas in town. There are five part-time people in the whole town. You can lay off anyone you want,” said Craig Barone, the president of Local 517 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. It was particularly unpalatable, he said, given that other municipal employes are slated to get pay raises.

The layoffs would leave the overnight police shifts understaffed and the town might have to look to the state police for help.

Currently, said Police Chief Ronald Lepre, Exeter is the only Rhode Island community without its own police force and relying exclusively on the troopers.

“If we cut the third shift … with current scheduling of three [days] on, three off and 10-hour shifts, there would be a block of 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. with no coverage. We would have to rearrange the manpower, but everything is up in the air,” Lepre said.

“It’s a monkey wrench, that’s for sure, to say it mildly,” Lepre said. “The concern is public safety and how we are going to provide that to residents.”

lsparks@projo.com