As Columbus homeowners are being hit with a 21% property tax increase, the mayor and city council Thursday will be discussing pay raises for themselves, perhaps as much as 14% over their current pay and a whopping 65% increase since September 2022.
Such a raise is tone-deaf, terrible timing and insulting.
During a special call meeting Monday, council members debated a line item that would increase the pay for council members from $26,200 to $30,000 (14%) and bump the mayor’s pay rate from $83,000 to $110,000 (32.5%).
Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco called the increase “way out of line” and countered with a proposal to increase the pay for the mayor and council by 3%, if anything, to match the across-the-board 3% raise that most city employees are set to receive next budget year.
We believe any raise is wildly inappropriate for Fiscal Year 2025.
Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens, who has never met a pay raise he didn’t like, said he was OK with the lower pay rate, but until a vote is actually taken, all we know of Mickens’ position is his track record. In both 2013 and 2017, Mickens voted for council member raises of $3,000 and $4,000, both of which eventually failed. In 2022, Mickens was among the majority in a 3-2 vote that raised council wages by $8,000 to its current $26,200. In May of this year, Mickens cast the tie-breaking vote to increase the vice mayor’s stipend for filling in for the mayor a whopping 400%.
City CFO Jim Brigham says Mickens also proposed the 14% raises the council debated on Monday.
The fact that these raises were added to the budget in the 11th hour, after the city has already had multiple public budget meetings, is further evidence that taxpayers are being taken advantage of.
It’s important to remember that the council positions are part-time jobs and were never intended to be a primary source of income for the office-holder. Being a council member is, first and foremost, a public service. While we understand council members should have some compensation, the larger raise proposal would put Columbus city council pay far ahead of nearly every other city in Mississippi.
We have also argued that the practice of the council voting themselves a pay raise is bad form. Far better to make those raises effective after their term has expired.
Our problem is not simply the additional near $90,000 these pay raises would add to the FY 2025 budget. It is the message being sent that we find most disturbing.
Any plan to increase council member pay by 65% in three years is beyond the pale.
In fact, the mere suggestion of such a raise is a slap in the face to citizens who are soon going to feel the pain of the substantial property tax increases, not to mention the effects of inflation over the past year.
And while DiCicco’s more modest 3% raise sounds much more palatable, we argue now is not the time for any raise, especially on the heels of the council’s 44% increase just two years ago.
If the council snubs its nose at the taxpaying citizens of Columbus Thursday, we suspect those who vote for this will have to do some paying on their own: hell to pay come election time.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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