Calgary park-and-ride users will pay $3 a day starting Jan. 1, 2009. (CBC)

Commuters will pay $3 a day next year to use the previously free park-and-ride spots near C-Train stations and major bus stops.

Calgary council approved the fee, which will raise an estimated $6 million for the city, while trying to wrestle down a proposed property tax hike Wednesday.

Calgary Transit has 13,177 parking spaces. Most are free, except at Fish Creek-Lacombe Station, where drivers can pay a fee to reserve a stall.

The new revenue will go to transit, partly to improve security and maintenance on the park-and-ride lots.

An extra $6 million will bring down the proposed property tax hike "almost a full percentage point," said Ald. John Mar.

Ald. Ray Jones said he reluctantly voted for the fee, but feels it should be phased in slowly.

"My druthers would be to phase it in at each lot," he said. "I can honestly see the residential zones being packed with cars and us getting the calls. People saying they are madder than hell because they can't park in front of their house."

City council members are continuing to go through a proposed operating budget line by line, having already made enough cuts on Tuesday to bring next year's tax increase down to about 7.4 per cent.

Aldermen agreed to remove about $18 million in expenses from a proposed $2.5-billion operating budget for 2009.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier suggested the biggest cut — removing $15.1 million in ambulance service expenses because the province has pledged to take over that responsibility effective April.

Other cuts made Tuesday included funding for consultants, a handful of new jobs, and a delay in hiring some staff in the asset-management department for six months.

One program that won't be cut is the police service.

Council members unanimously passed an $800-million police budget for the next three years, the single largest component of the city budget. Most of that money will be used to hire about 200 more officers.

The budget debate informally began on Nov. 7, when city staff proposed a $7.9-billion operating budget for 2009-11.

That would have resulted in three years of property tax hikes: 9.6 per cent in the first year, 6.8 per cent the second, and 6.9 per cent in the third — to cover the extra spending. Compounded over the three-year term of that budget, the increase works out to about 25 per cent.

Eight out of 15 aldermen vowed last week to defeat that proposal.

Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said Tuesday there was still a chance the motion to reject the whole budget will be tabled.

City council has set aside the rest of the week for special meetings on the budget.

On Monday, council heard about 30 presentations from the public, most calling for cuts to city spending to bring the property tax increase down.