Valerie Plante's administration has passed its first budget complete with tax increases.

The increase in property tax averages 1.9 per cent for homeowners, but includes the first increase in water tax since 2012, bringing the overall increase to 3.3 per cent.

That outraged many people, and several protests have taken place in recent weeks since the budget was introduced.

““I hear when people say that,” said Mayor Valerie Plante. “Of course, I’m not deaf, so it’s important. Some people are disappointed and upset and I hear it. At the same time I’ve got to say, I’m out there a lot and I’m also hearing mixed messages. Some of them are saying, ‘We understand why you doing it and we wish you would have shared it will us differently.’ And that is very important to me and for sure there will be some adjustments.”

Opposition councillors spoke out, and voted against, the budget with a final vote of 40 in favour and 24 against, along party lines.

Saint-Laurent Borough Mayor Alan De Sousa, heavily critical of the plan, said “there’s a fine line between courage and stupidity and with this budget that line has been crossed.”

The opposition introduced several amendments that were rejected.

“We’re very disappointed in the decision of the mayor not to accept our amendment. We made a very constructive, realistic proposal that was received by the finance department to reduce the tax rate to one that’s acceptable to the rate of inflation. They declined,” said Ensemble Montreal leader Lionel Perez.

Plante said she intends to gain back trust by sticking to the issues that helped elect her party.

One protest took place Wednesday morning, featuring business owners -- who will face larger tax increases -- and many residents of demerged cities who are facing larger tax increases than expected, an average of more than five per cent.

“At this point, I’m going to make sure that people who might be disappointed, that I will get their trust again by doing exactly what I said I would do: investing in economic development, mobility, housing and not cutting into boroughs,” she said.

Perez suggested the budget shows Projet Montreal is not listening to Montrealers.

“They refused to listen and to heed to the population. It shows to what extent they are disconnected, to what extent they don’t want to listen to the population. Everybody said that it’s a poor budget, It’s very sad for them to take this approach. It’s going to hurt Montrealers on the short term and on the medium term,” he said.

Former city of Beaconsfield councillor Rhonda Massad, who is running a petition against the budget, was part of Wednesday's demonstration and said she did not think the Montreal government was listening.

"I would like her to take more time to consult with the mayors of the demerged municipalities and I would also implore that the Quebec government in the next election include the agglomeration structure that is not democratic. I would like them to be including that so that I can vote for the person that is going to be fixing the unfair system that exists today," said Massad.

Plante said she understood the frustration, but that she would not alter her plans.

"I'm not surprised by the fact that of course it's never good news to hear that you're going to pay more, nobody wants to hear that. At the same time that's why I'm here and we're going to vote and I'm going to move forward with the budget is that we had no choice. We had no flexibility around the budget, we had to make difficult decisions. But I'm not going to do like the other administration and just shovel the problems to the next generation," said Plante.

"This budget allows us to start investing in our priorities. It's a transitional budget, but it shows where we want to go in the next few years,” she added.

During the election campaign, Plante and Projet Montreal promised to cut taxes and reduce city spending, but days after being elected said the previous administration had left a $358 million hole in the city's $5.5 billion budget.

Opposition councillors, many of whom were in the previous administration, denied that charge and said the truth would eventually be revealed by the city's auditor general.