The city of Columbus is dropping its plans to raise taxes by 1 mill but is staying the course on planned raises.
At a budget hearing Thursday evening, Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told the city council that abandoning the ad valorem tax increase would reduce the projected budget surplus for Fiscal Year 2023 from $584,132 to $301,862. It would leave the millage rate — used to tax real and personal property — at 54.11.
The newest budget draft includes $24,571,438 in expenditures and $24,873,300 in revenues, he said. Revenues in Fiscal Year 2023 are projected to be $1,068,125 higher, which includes about $900,000 in increased sales tax.
Brigham said the city projected $9.6 million in sales tax revenue for FY 22 but has already collected $10 million year to date with a month of collections to go. The FY 23 budget projects sales tax collections of $10.5 million.
The budget includes a planned reduction of $417,000 in the Columbus Police Department budget, which Brigham went to some pains to explain was not an attempt to undercut the department.
CPD was budgeted for 99 personnel, with around 70 sworn police officers, he said.
“We’re operating at around 35 (sworn officers),” he said. “You can see we have not been able to keep officers at a good operational level.”
The plan — which originated with Interim Chief Doran Johnson — is to have 55 sworn officers, and to give those officers a raise, he said.
Reaching that number of officers would still bulk up the force from its current level.
“They will be better paid, better trained, and more effective,” he said. “It will be a better, more experienced force so we’re not losing officers.”
The city is looking at Columbus Fire and Rescue in a similar light, Brigham said. It wants to hike pay but have fewer personnel until a solid base can be built up.
“The fire department needs to go up in numbers,” he said. “But we need to make sure that the firefighters that we have stay, so we’re not constantly losing them and having to replace them. We’re going to be looking at getting up to 65 firefighting personnel over the next three years with better pay and better training.”
CFR is currently budgeted for 70 officers and has 57. One of those, however, is currently on a military deployment.
Brigham said he has not had the opportunity to look at Fire Chief Duane Hughes’ recommendations for pay yet.
Employee, elected official raises
The budget includes a 4-percent pay increase for city workers, which will cost the city about $400,000. Additionally, about 90 employees making less than $12.50 per hour will be brought up to that amount, at a cost of about $300,000.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens said he hoped the city could give another raise in the near future.
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “We went as far as we can go this year. If more revenues come in next year, and we can do better for our employees, we’ll give them a better raise next year.”
Elected officials will also get a raise, with the mayor’s salary going from $83,000 a year to $106,000, and the council members’ salaries going from $18,200 to $25,000.
Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Taylor Stewart pushed back on criticism of those raises, compared to the 4 percent given to city workers.
“We had employees that were making $10.30,” she said. “If you take them up to $12.50, that is a 21-percent raise. I think there were about 90 employees that got there. So we didn’t just go 4 percent across the board.”
She echoed Mickens’ sentiment that more raises could be on the way.
“How do you eat an elephant?” she said. “One bite at a time. This is a start.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion