Starkville aldermen approved a measure Tuesday that will “make whole” city officials and employees who took pay or hour cuts for nearly two months earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anticipating a drastic shortfall in sales tax revenue because of measures to mitigate spreading the virus — including a lockdown that temporarily closed several businesses — the city on April 24 instituted a 20-percent pay or hour cut for department heads, aldermen, the mayor and other employees who did not qualify for unemployment relief. Those wages were restored to their regular rate as of July 16. Since sales tax collections were down only a fraction of worst-case estimates, now those employees and officials will see a 20-percent increase on their paychecks for the same number of pay periods they were cut to make up for the wages they lost.
The boon will cost the city $56,279.12, according to a document in the e-packet for Tuesday evening’s meeting, with portions coming from the general, sanitation and utilities funds.
“I think it was incredibly important to make those people whole,” Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch before Tuesday’s meeting. “It was a matter of fairness and equity, since we have the capability to do it.”
Aldermen discussed the measure at its Friday morning work session, agreeing to place it on Tuesday’s consent agenda, meaning it could pass without discussion. Still, Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver, one of four aldermen who joined Tuesday’s meeting via Zoom, made note he thought it was the “noble and right thing to do.”
City officials projected in April that sales tax revenue could fall short of Fiscal Year 2020 budget expectations by as much as $1.3 million. That caused aldermen to implement the pay cuts, as well as furlough 47 other employees who did qualify for unemployment relief.
Those furloughed employees, Spruill said, are not included in the compensation make-up measure because their increased unemployment benefits paid many of them more than they made while they were working.
But Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk, who chairs the city’s budget committee, said the shortfall through Sept. 30 — the end of the fiscal year — only amounted to about $130,000. She credited federal stimulus programs and increased amounts of unemployment protection for helping preserve the overall economic picture. However, she noted some businesses were more negatively affected than others.
“As we were making those adjustments in April, we were in lockdown … not sure what was going to happen,” Sistrunk told The Dispatch after Tuesday’s meeting. “What I think happened is people shifted where they spent their money — shopping at grocery stores instead of eating out as much (for example). There’s no doubt some of our businesses suffered greatly.”
Both Sistrunk and Spruill said the last two months of sales tax collections actually outpaced the same months of 2019, though food and beverage tax revenue is still lagging. Sistrunk expects the sales tax report in November — which will reflect September sales — to be down because of the delayed start to Southeastern Conference football season, which normally would have brought fans to Mississippi State for several weekends.
In other business, the city extended its mask-wearing mandate for 30 more days.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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