Aberdeenshire Council is reportedly considering raising council tax by 20%, despite the finance secretary's pleas to avoid hefty hikes.
The Times is reporting that as many as one in five local authorities in Scotland are looking at double-digit rises.
It comes in spite of Shona Robison's call for councils to steer clear of imposing large tax hikes as she allocated an extra £1billion to local authorities in her draft Budget.
SNP councilor Katie Hagmann, the resources spokeswoman for Cosla, which represents local authorities, confirmed that councils were facing “difficult decisions”.
In an interview with The Sunday Show on BBC Scotland, she said the increase in funding was welcome but that councils would also need to look at tax rises to maintain health and social care services while balancing the books amid "huge concerns" around the employer contributions to National Insurance.
She said: “We asked for an increase of 5% and we have had a real-terms increase, but it’s only 2.6 per cent, so while this is really welcome news, we are not out of the woods yet.”
She went on: “There are clear statutory services that local government will be delivering across the country for our communities, but we provide a range of services that aren’t necessarily statutory but are making a real-life difference to communities across the country, whether that’s your library services, leisure services, youth services, day services, a whole host of things.
“We do have concerns and we would like additional funding to deliver health and social care, and there are huge concerns around employers’ national insurance. Councils are going to have to make those difficult decisions.
"Certainly, councils have one lever they can use to safeguard services, so council tax increases could be used to fund services locally.”
Robison said last week: “I don’t think there’s any administration of any political colour that will want to look at citizens in the eye, given this settlement, and increase the council tax beyond what is required. And I’m sure there’ll be a sensible outcome in those discussions.”