A budget the Kannapolis City Council passed 5-2 Tuesday sets the tax rate at 49 cents per $100 valuation. Property worth $100,000 will cost its owner $490 — $20 more than this year’s 47-cent rate. Water and sewer bills will remain the same.

Council members Phil Meacham and Richard Anderson voted against the increase, saying they wanted to keep the rate at 47 cents.

“I still have a real mental problem with this, even if it’s forced down to two cents,” said Anderson. “I cannot vote for this ... and say to the people of Kannapolis, ‘We’re going to raise your taxes, so we can pay for these items.’ ”

Anderson questioned the need for $38,000 for a parks and recreation director and $28,000 for a vehicle for that position. The city now has one full-time and eight part-time park employees. He also questioned the city’s need for a new employee responsible for public relations.

Others called the increase an “investment” to attract industry, generate more tax revenue and reduce the share residents pay.

“I’m satisfied that I’m on safe ground in saying we’re doing what the citizens want us to do,” Councilman Roger Haas said.

“I think we have squeezed all the fat out of the budget,” Councilman Ken Geathers said.

Last month, City Manager David Hales proposed raising the tax rate 4 cents to 51 cents per $100 valuation.

The smaller budget adopted Monday night will still allow the city to spend $300,000 to develop a business park along I-85 in the newly annexed Coddle Creek community. Last year, the city zoned nearly 1,000 acres there for industrial purposes.

The budget still adds six paid firefighters to the city’s present 12 and two new dispatchers for the police department. And, it includes $153,806 to bring salaries of some of the city’s 200 employees up to what other cities its size pay.

But the budget includes $100,000 — not the $150,000 proposed — to develop a marketing plan to attract more business to Kannapolis. Another $86,000 was cut that would have been the first installment for the proposed Irish Buffalo Park on Bethpage Road, because the city did not receive a state grant to help pay for that project. And $89,000 was cut from maintenance and repairs on equipment city police and firefighters use.

Meacham criticized the increase, but neither he nor Anderson proposed how the city could keep its current tax level. “There’s a lot of older people that can’t make ends meet, and we keep moving the ends farther apart,” he said.

Meacham wondered why a tax increase is necessary with last year’s revaluation and addition of 10 square miles in Coddle Creek to the city. Together they brought the city an additional $2 million in revenue. He criticized the annexation.

“Annexing Coddle Creek, that’s costing us a bunch of money to provide services there, right?” Meacham asked. “I say it’s a gamble that we will have economic development out there. ... If it doesn’t happen, we’re pretty much up the creek without a paddle.”

Hales said the annexation will give the city desperately needed room for industrial growth. He said economic development was the No. 1 priority of residents in a survey done a year ago.