JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A compromise budget plan hammered out at a meeting Wednesday morning between the Jacksonville City Council finance committee, Mayor John Peyton and Sheriff John Rutherford calls for a 9 percent property tax increase, but it restores funding to prevent any layoffs at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

The full City Council will meet Thursday on the nearly $1 billion compromise budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The plan calls for the property rate to be set at 9.2 mills -- which the city said will result in a $75 annual increase for the average homeowner.

In the agreement reached Wednesday, not only will the sheriff be able to save the mounted unit and a few other sworn officers, he will also be able to keep the community service officers program, which includes 92 officers, other civilian positions and be able to hire 50 new police officers funded primarily by a $9.2 million federal Justice Department grant.

"If this passes, then I'll be sending e-mails to them letting them know their jobs are secure," Rutherford said. "Public safety is obviously the core function of government."

The 3 percent cuts to other city departments will stand, although there continues to be discussion about finding money to restore some branch library hours that were cut last week.

"I am still concerned about library hours because the impact of those cuts is on the inner city, and that is fundamentally unfair to me," councilman Warren Jones said.

Since July, when the City Council turned down Peytons' request to increase property taxes 12 percent, the finance committee has struggled trying to cut $50 million from the budget so the tax rate would not need to be increased at all. Last week, they ended the process $30 million shy of their goal.

"I think we have an agreement now that we can move forward and keep Jacksonville on track with a marginal, marginal increase in taxes but an expensive cutting to the government," Peyton said.

Council President Richard Clark said that after all the cuts, the city's operating expenses will be $1 million less than last fiscal year. He also said council would continue to look for expense reductions and efficiencies in city operations and that the process for creating that 2010/2011budget would begin as soon as this year's budget is passed.