Caerphilly County Borough Council is “at the end of its tether” after cabinet members backed cuts of £13.9 million and a council tax rise of 6.95%.
Council leader David Poole said public services were “being killed” by reduced settlements from the Welsh and UK governments.
A meeting of full council is set to discuss the council budget tonight.
A cash increase of £549,000 had been received from Welsh Government for 2019/20 – but this was deemed “minuscule” amid growing financial pressures.
Cllr Poole and colleagues agreed to defer cutbacks worth £739,000 on Wednesday last week but warned that the decision relied on the “better than expected” settlement.
“If we wanted to save those services without the extra cash, we’d be making cuts in other services and we’d have to come up with another list of unpalatable cuts,” he said.
“We reluctantly went out to consultation with savings that we felt uncomfortable with.
“We need to get the message out to the Welsh and UK governments that you’re killing services that a hell of a lot of people depend on. We’re now at the end of our tether.”
The meeting heard that funding would have to increase by four per cent on a yearly basis for the council “just to stand still”.
But the council is working on an assumption that it will receive funding cuts of 0.5 per cent after next year, meaning savings of £44 million will need to be delivered by 2023/24.
Nicole Scammell, head of corporate finance, said: “While it’s an effective cash increase, £539,000 is a minuscule amount.
“It would only cover about half of the pay increases for staff outside schools after this year.”
Ms Scammell added that the list of “prudent” savings proposed was the longest recorded by the authority.
Plaid Cymru has previously called on the council to spend its usable reserves – the third highest in Wales last year at £109.8 million – on invest to save schemes.
But Ms Scammell said any local authority would be “foolish” to use reserves to balance its budgets unless it was in an “absolutely dire position”.
Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the council’s Plaid group, said residents of Band D properties would have to pay £233.37 more on their council tax bills than in 2012/13.
“Labour has dealt people in Caerphilly a double whammy of soaring council tax and huge spending cuts of more than £73 million between 2013/14 and 2019/20,” he said.
“This has come at a time when many workers have received little or no wage increases and certainly well below the 26% council tax rise.
“Is it any surprise that so many of our residents are struggling to makes ends meet?”
Councillors will be asked to approve the budget proposals on February 21.