Columbus city employees are scheduled to receive a 3-percent pay raise in the upcoming fiscal year.
Milton Rawle, the city’s chief financial officer, during a budget work session Monday, told councilmen the pay bump is a major item in the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 budget.
“If this budget passes, we’ll have no employees making under $10 an hour,” Rawle said.
If approved by the council, the raise would have Columbus joining Starkville in raising employee pay — Starkville’s aldermen in July approved a 3-percent raise for city employees.
David Armstrong, chief operations officer for Columbus, said an across-the-board 3-percent pay raise for 277 city employees will cost about $408,000.
The announcement didn’t generate any extensive conversation from councilmen, though it did draw applause from Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens.
Projected revenues and expenditures are up for the projected budget, which must be adopted by Sept. 15.
Revenues for the suggested budget were at $23.36 million, which is up from this fiscal year’s $22.66 million. Expenditures are up sharply, at $25.06 million, compared to $22.96 million for the 2015 budget.
Councilmen have a month to determine what requests to approve and where to make cuts to reduce the $1.7 million deficit in the suggested budget. The city must hold a public hearing to set the millage rate before then. Armstrong said he’s tentatively eyeing Sept. 8 for the public hearing.
Armstrong suggested cuts to requested funding for councilmen to consider during the budget process. The reductions from the requested funding from departments include $540,000 from financed landfill equipment; $175,000 from financed police cars; $240,000 in a reduction of maximum Columbus Police Department officers to 66; $64,000 for capital equipment for CPD; $50,000 from Columbus Fire and Rescue at Chief Martin Andrew’s discretion; $169,000 for Public Works capital equipment; and $234,883 from capital appropriations.
Councilmen will meet again at 10 a.m. Wednesday to resume budget talks.
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 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.