The theme at the City Hall budget meeting this week was — see if you can guess? — tax hikes. Interested people filled all seats, stood in the wings and bustled outside to testify against tax hikes or to beg for the preservation of their programs — two desires that don’t coexist very well. I didn’t arrive early enough to score a chair. So I was on the floor. In my skirt. Talk about wardrobe malfunction. It was a long afternoon.

On the floor (besides myself) were amendments to the proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2010. The early low-down: The council passed a 3 cent per gallon increase in the fuel tax on a preliminary vote. The last time the City Council raised this tax was 21 years ago in 1989, when it went up a nickel.

Property taxes are the biggest source of revenue for the city, and proposals in this area generated plenty of debate. Council members voted to raise the minimum property tax rate from $100 to $300. This would bring in $2.4 million. Several citizens, including Mitch Kahle of Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, noted that many nonprofit organizations — notably over 800 churches — have plenty of money yet pay the minimum fee.

Creating a new property tax class for people who own properties but don’t live in them would generate $18 million in revenue. If this proposal doesn’t pass, noted City Council budget chair Nestor Garcia, “I gotta find $18 million in savings, folks. And you’re going to be back here. So we need to have the debate now.”

Cuts the City Council proposed included a 5 percent salary decrease for council members. “I had to show that we’re willing to cut our budget, too,” said Garcia. “Shared sacrifice.” He also suggested an end to videotaped meetings on Olelo. So people hampered by the fuel tax wouldn’t even have remote access to council meetings? The irony didn’t escape the chuckling audience.