STARKVILLE — The police department may be getting its 20 requested cameras and two new employees to monitor them in the next fiscal year after all, with no tax increase required.
But to balance the proposed budget, other new services — including funding toward the reopening of Fire Station 5 and the city’s signalization project for traffic light timing — made it to the chopping block during the board of aldermen’s Friday work session at City Hall. Also on the table is the timing for the next round of raises for the mayor and board of aldermen.
Mayor Lynn Spruill asked to revisit the cameras based on her misunderstanding of a budget cut during the board’s Aug. 6 meeting, which removed $140,000 from that line item. The cut left the police department getting only 10 cameras and one person to monitor them next fiscal year.
“I really would like to revisit getting 20 cameras next year, which means we are still shy 10 cameras and a person,” Spruill said. “If there’s no appetite to do that, y’all tell me. But I want to make sure we’re clear, because we did talk about that.”
The police department requested 41 cameras and eight license plate readers to be purchased over the next two fiscal years — hoping to get half the cameras and two additional personnel next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
To cover next year’s portion of the request with new revenue, it would take a 0.4-mill increase to residents’ real and personal property taxes. For homeowners, that would add $4 for every $100,000 of home value to their tax bill.
But discussions of a tax increase were short during the work session, as Ward 3 Alderman Jeffrey Rupp quickly called that a “last resort.”
Instead, he suggested buying cameras incrementally, starting with 10 and adding more as the city can afford it, possibly drawing from any excess sales tax revenue that is not included in the current budget.
“We can start the process. We can do 10 cameras, which will be 10 more than we had last year, and we can balance the budget. It’s not a big increase, but it’s the principle,” Rupp said. “I think everybody’s feeling things in their pocketbook. … We know we can do this to some degree without causing an increase to our tax payers.”
But Sistrunk said the budget already includes a 6.3% increase in sales tax revenue, which she called an “aggressive” estimate. She reminded the board that the city missed its projection by almost $500,000 in FY 2023. She also reminded Rupp that the board is limited in future budget amendments, since it is the last year of the current term.
Instead, Sistrunk suggested cutting other new services to cover the cost of the cameras.
“If we’re not going to consider a tax increase, I think we should take it from some of those other new services,” Sistrunk said. “The signalization and the SAFER grant. Split it and take ($30,000) from the SAFER grant, take ($100,000) from capital outlay, and then whatever the effect of delaying the mayor and board of aldermen raises are to July 1. That would get us close to ($135,000) or so.”
The city applied for a Federal Emergency Management Agency SAFER grant to fund the salaries of nine firefighters to reopen and staff Fire Station 5 over the next three years.
While the salaries would be covered by the grant, Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough estimated in April that the city would still be on the hook for about $370,000 in training, equipment and other expenses spread over three years.
Sistrunk told The Dispatch after the meeting that the city has not yet gotten word on whether it will receive the grant, but the board had earmarked funding for the extra costs for next fiscal year in case the grant comes through. By reducing the funding for that item, those additional expenses may be delayed to other fiscal years, she said.
The same goes for the city’s signalization project, which City Engineer Cody Burnett said aims to put cameras on all the traffic lights in the city, helping to optimize their timing based on traffic density. Some of those cameras, he said, are already folded into the budgets of the Main Street and Highway 182 redesign projects. But others were built into the proposed capital outlay fund and may be delayed a few years if the board doesn’t find other solutions before adopting the budget.
“Nobody gets to complain about sitting at a red light,” Sistrunk joked with the board.
Board to forgo raises?
But the board did not ask its departments to make cuts without looking at its own pockets. Mayor Lynn Spruill asked the board to consider delaying a second straight year of pay raises for the mayor and board of aldermen until July 1, 2025, nine months after they would otherwise take effect.
This would push them to after the next election, when the next board is sworn into office. Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Alderman Roy A. Perkins pointed out that this would be a return to form for the city.
“We have done that system since ‘93, except during this term, when pay raises went into effect on Oct. 1,” Perkins said. “… The system, without any deviation… was that the board could not give itself any pay increase.”
Sistrunk told The Dispatch the proposed raises for all seven aldermen across the entire fiscal year, with salary plus benefits, add up to about $2,895. The mayor’s raise, with benefits, would cost about $4,451.
“If we just budgeted from (July 1) forward, the alderman portion drops down to a budget effect of $725, and the mayor drops down to $1,113,” Sistrunk said.
Ward 1 Alderwoman Kim Moreland said she wouldn’t feel comfortable giving herself a raise, with other city departments already running short.
“First of all, we’re struggling to make a budget,” Moreland said. “I know it’s not a lot of money, but it’s the principle of it.”
None of the board members voiced any concerns with forgoing an Oct. 1 raise, but the item was left off of the board’s consent agenda for further discussion at its next meeting.
The board must approve its budget by Sept. 15.
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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 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
