Mayor Adrian Fenty on Thursday proposed slashing hundreds of vacant positions, slowing a promised tax cut and keeping new spending to a minimum in an effort to close an expected budget shortfall in fiscal 2009.

The $5.66 billion proposed local funds budget amounts to a .66 percent spending increase over the current year — significantly less than the 8 and 9 percent increases of the recent past. The $8.7 billion gross funds budget, including all federal funds and grants, represents a 3.26 percent increase.