Councillors have decided how hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent on services like education, and projects including a new leisure centre in Carmarthenshire.
They set the revenue and capital budgets for 2022-23 after debates marked by fierce exchanges about council tax rises and the pace of delivery of some high-profile projects.
The budget-setting came after council leader Emlyn Dole spoke of "truly heart-breaking" images in Ukraine but also "scenes of generosity and unity" in response to the crisis by people in Carmarthenshire. The authority, he said, would play its part in welcoming people seeking sanctuary.
The Plaid-Independent administration said its proposed 2.5% council tax rise was fair and reasonable, given a raft of major cost pressures facing the authority.
Labour opponents said the Welsh Government was giving the council an "unprecedented" increase in core funding and that the administration must rethink the 2.5% proposal given the multiple price rises facing residents.
The 2.5% increase will result in band D householders paying £1,396.04 towards council services - £34.07p more than the current year - although the actual bill is higher because of the Dyfed-Powys Police precept.
The expenditure on day-to-day council services will be £424.5 million.
By far the three biggest areas are education and children's services (£187.5 million), communities (£119.2 million), and environment services (£65.9 million).
The net budget, taking into account contributions and other factors, is £415.8 million, which will be funded by the Welsh Government (£311.6 million) and council tax (£104.2 million).
Cllr David Jenkins, cabinet member for resources, said he welcomed the 9.2% higher settlement from the Welsh Government but warned that local authority finances were "more uncertain than ever", mainly due to inflation.
Some budget proposals had been changed, he said, to take into account responses to a consultation by residents and councillors. The public, he said, quite clearly indicated it sought the lowest council tax rise possible.
Cllr Jenkins said he believed the revised budget responded to concerns, while seeking to maintain service standards and prepare for further financial uncertainty.
Cllr Dole said the council would have to absorb Covid-related costs from April, such as decreased income, because the Welsh Government's hardship fund - which he was thankful for - was coming to an end.
He said the 9.2% increase in the Welsh Government settlement still didn't regain "the lost years of austerity", and that council tax would be much lower than Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend despite a 2.5% rise.
Opposition leader, Cllr Rob James, said Welsh Labour had been funding many initiatives as well as the increase in the settlement, and that other authorities were freezing council tax or raising it by less than 1%. Residents were experiencing a cost of living crisis now, he said, and "Plaid Cymru has not risen to the challenge".
Cllr James said Carmarthenshire Labour saw "wastage in the system" and that Plaid ignored his party's alternative budget every year.
Labour councillor Kevin Madge he understood the authority faced cost pressures but said that the proposed council tax rise was still a lot of money for people, especially as impacts from the Ukraine crisis were yet to be felt here.
Plaid councillor Emlyn Schiavone said he felt the 2.5% increase was "a reasonable and acceptable compromise" because of the need to sustain "vital" services.
Plaid colleague, Cllr Darren Price said council tax had risen by 4.77% and 4.85% in two of the years when Cllr Madge had led the authority.
Plaid Cllr Alun Lenny asked Labour where cuts would come from if council tax didn't rise.
Conservative councillor, Shahana Najmi, said the £150 energy bill rebate coming to most householders would be cancelled out if the 2.5% council tax rise was approved.
Plaid councillor Alan Speake said Cllr James was "all mouth and no facts" and came with "fixed bayonets but no bullets in the magazine".
Labour councillor Rob Evans said he was "absolutely disgusted by the way people are talking" in the middle of a new crisis and after two years of Covid "hell".
He said now was the time to freeze council tax.
"I'm suffering, all you councillors are suffering, people are suffering," he said.
Plaid councillor Gareth John said "responsibility" was the key word. Never before, he said, had there been "so many financial unknowns" as currently.
Cllr John said he would like a council tax freeze but would far prefer a "responsible approach".
The budget was approved before councillors moved on to debate the capital budget, which outlined schemes totalling £146.2 million in 2022-23, rising to £275.1 million over five years.
Big-ticket projects in 2022-23 include £53.2 million towards the first of four zones at the new Pentrel Awel wellness and life science village at Delta Lakes, Llanelli. Zone one includes a new leisure centre.
New school builds worth £36.4 million were listed on the budget papers, plus £9.5 million towards the new Towy Valley cycle path between Carmarthen and Llandeilo, and £9.2 million for the new hub at the former Debenhams, Carmarthen.
Cllr Jenkins said the capital investment proposed was "comprehensive and ambitious" and "rightly focused on economic regeneration and recovery".
Cllr James said there was a lack of action on projects and that new schools with money set aside for their construction years ago, including Llanelli's Ysgol Dewi Sant, had not been built. Children in the county, he said, were "simply being left behind".
He also asked if up to £5 million of the £15 million Towy Valley cycle path would be spent acquiring the land needed, ending up "in the hands of rich landowners".
He said: "You are promising a lot to residents and there is no delivery here."
Cllr Lenny said Ysgol Dewi Sant would have had a new school by now if Labour hadn't objected to the administration's proposal, at Llanerch fields.
He added that he was sure Llanelli residents would be pleased with the new leisure centre.
Plaid's cabinet member for environment, Cllr Hazel Evans, said the Towy Valley cycle path would generate £4.5 million for the local economy annually.
Plaid councillor Dorian Williams said some people "cannot function without negativity" - a comment echoed by Plaid's cabinet member for education and children's services, Cllr Glynog Davies.
Cllr Davies said the administration was doing everything it could to build a new YsgolDewiSant, and that he had "had enough" of Cllr James's opposition.
New schools in Ammanford and Llandeilo, he added, were also among his priorities.
Cllr James then said it was Natural Resources Wales, not Labour, which had deemed the Ysgol Dewi Sant proposal "not fit for purpose".
Before the capital budget was approved, Labour councillor Andre McPherson said all his party was trying to do was to question, and ensure projects went ahead.
"I think it's absolutely disgusting - whenever anyone does not agree with the administration it's just aggression, aggression, aggression. What is that saying to the next generation?"
Closing the debate, Cllr Jenkins said said it was difficult not to be personal because "things have been said by individuals". He said he had an open door policy and would listen to constructive proposals, but that Cllr James had not taken it up.
On the Towy Valley cycle path, Cllr Jenkins said the council would only pay district valuer rates for land.
"They will be fair market rates," he said.
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