Householders could face a council tax hike of up to six per cent next year - unless savings can be found - as City of York Council faces a possible £4 million budget shortfall.

The potential shortfall in the revenue budget will be outlined to councillors by accountancy manager David Laws on Tuesday.

His estimates show that the council's expenditure for the year 2000/1 will be £132 million, up by £8.5 million, or seven per cent, on this year.

This increase includes inflation and £1 million for growth, plus £1 million to cover the five pledges given by the ruling Labour group at the local elections in May.

The calculations were made assuming that council tax goes up by 4.5 per cent next year, the Government-assumed level.

Mr Laws said one way of tackling the £4 million shortfall might be to increase council tax by more than this amount. Increasing it by 6.1 per cent would raise an additional £600,000.

This year the council received £84.5 million from the Government and £39 million from council tax, with the rest from fees and charges. As yet, the council does not know the exact amount it will get from the Government, the largest portion of income it receives.

The revenue budget goes on things like paying teaching, social services, housing and library staff as well as administering and paying for the council's services.

Mr Laws will also tell councillors that in the years 2001/2 and 2002/3 the budget looks set to face shortfalls of about £3.7million per year.

He said that since the council had been formed, it had faced similar shortfalls and it was likely that at least half would be able to be saved by efficiency savings as in previous years.

Council opposition leaders called today for savings to be made in the authority's publicity machine.

Tory group leader Coun John Galvin said the council should cut back on a "plethora of glossy publications" put out by the authority to brush up its image, and he attacked the Labour Government's control of local authorities which he claimed was more proscriptive than any Tory government had ever been.

The council's Labour leader, Coun Rod Hills, was unavailable for comment.

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