However, it was unclear how the council would pay for the police pay raises if it did not raise the motor-vehicle weight tax.

Unless the council decides today to raise the taxes, it cannot use them as a financing tool until 2005. The council today was considering Bill 69, which would increase the weight tax from 1.25 cents to 2 cents a pound on Jan. 1.

The bill also would increase the commercial-vehicle tax rate to 2.5 cents a pound from the present 2 cents.

The higher tax means owners of 545,323 passenger vehicles will pay an extra $16 to $34 on their annual motor-vehicle registration.

Commercial-vehicle operators had opposed the increase.

Ken LeVasseur, of Gomes School Bus Service Ltd., said earlier this year that his company would have to pay $15,000 to $20,000 more to cover registration costs for its 85 buses and four trucks.

He argued that commercial-vehicle owners should be exempted from the tax increase for the duration of their long-term contracts because the contracts were written with present taxes in mind.

"If you pass this as written, companies are going to need to cut jobs," LeVasseur said.

Taxi drivers also opposed the measure. "I don’t know how much more we can bear," cab driver Craig Maeshiro said.

The motor-vehicle weight tax has been unchanged since 1990.

The city administration had urged the council to approve the increase, arguing there were few other alternatives to pay for the police pay increase.

The higher taxes would bring in $6.5 million through June 30, and $13 million the next year, according to administration estimates.

Police contract details released by an arbitration panel at the end of September would give officers a 4 percent raise in each of the four years of the contract, which along with health-fund payments and other benefits will cost about $66.4 million over the length of the contract: an additional $5.8 million this fiscal year, $12.7 million the second year, $20.7 million the third year and $27.2 million the fourth year.

City Human Services Director Cheryl Okuma-Sepe said in addition to an across-the-board raise, officers will also see fringe-benefit rollovers and an additional $15 per month in their standard-of-conduct differentials. "The total wage package is really a 22.14 percent increase to the base salary," she said.