STARKVILLE — Aldermen on Tuesday approved immediate across-the-board salary increases for city employees and elected officials.
The city is using $108,000 in proceeds from the sale of the former Nucor property on Airport Road, Mayor Lynn Spruill said. That money is enough to cover the raises through Sept. 30, the end of this fiscal year.
Human Resources Director Navarette Ashford could not be reached by press time on specifics on how the raises would be distributed. Spruill said they would include employees, the mayor and aldermen.
Starkville has owned the industrial park property where Nucor was located since the 1960s, Spruill said. In a joint sale closed earlier this year for about $2.1 million — which included the city’s land and Nucor’s facilities — the city’s portion was roughly $800,000.
Aldermen are building more than $1 million in raises into the city’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget, almost a third of which it could fund with a 1-mill ad valorem tax increase. The board held a second public hearing on the proposed budget Tuesday and is scheduled to vote on it Sept. 6.
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