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Concerns have been raised there could be "drastic cuts" to key services run by Medway Council without much-needed government aid.
Kent's only unitary authority has estimated a significant loss of income from parking charges (£4m) and leisure services (£3m). The council also faces a budget shortfall of £40m due to the cost of the coronavirus pandemic.
Calls have been made for Whitehall bosses to "address" the holes in its £429m spending budget this financial year, the biggest in Medway Council's history, as the authority has been forced to drawdown on £15m of reserves.
Medway Council's deputy leader Cllr Howard Doe (Con) said: "I don't think budgets around the country will stand this sort of punishment without drastic cuts in services, at a time when they are needed more than ever."
His comments came yesterday during a virtual cabinet meeting at the council's main offices in Chatham's Gun Wharf and via Microsoft Teams.
A report was published to the 10 executives on Medway Council eight days ago which revealed a major pressure of £8.6million on adult and children's services, including an increase to weekly costs of social care placements and spending to keep schools afloat amid the Covid crisis.
Medway's leisure industry took a major hit during the pandemic and has forecast an income pressure of £3million so far.
This comes after centres were forced to close for four months, from mid-March to the end of July, while customers are now reluctant to return since reopening.
In addition, Medway Council has forecast a loss of £4million from car parking revenue as people continue to work and stay at home.
Cllr Doe added: "The fall in income, particularly from parking and leisure, is a very serious shortfall.
"I hope the government is going to address this because it needs to do. We were never geared for this kind of crisis, nobody was."
Around £36million of government grants have been used to cover some costs for Medway businesses since mid-March, but the authority is still having to drawdown on millions of pounds of reserves to cover a major Covid deficit, a Medway Council report indicates.
The leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con), said the authority was still "hoping for the best" as more government aid is sought.
Speaking to his cabinet colleagues, he said: "Our collection rates on council tax are holding up fairly well, but we have some milestones to come. Not least the cessation of the government's furlough scheme."
Medway Council's main opposition leader, Cllr Vince Maple (Lab) said a "decade of austerity" had been an enormous blow for councils during the pandemic and worried about the "big chunk" taken from reserves.
Cllr Maple said: "There should be a a much bigger safety net."
However, Cllr Jarrett said the £15million reserves, as described in a Medway Council report, were in fact unused grants rolling over from the previous financial year and the remainder of this year.
