News
Employees get 3.14% raise in new budget
Posted on September 20, 2018
Originally published in the Times Daily.
Councilman Gary Cummings said the city is blessed to have good employees.
“They are dedicated and they do a good job,” Cummings said. “We need to do all we can for our employees when we can.”
Cummings said he was excited that the council was able to add a 3.14-percent raise for all city civil service employees.
“This is the first across-the-board raise for these employees in seven years,” said Mayor David Grissom.
The $9,176,776 budget, which was approved during a recent meeting, included the raise.
The mayor said the budget includes a monthly longevity increase for civil service employees with five years or service or more. Grissom said this is a part of the city’s new policy and procedures policy.
Grissom said giving raises was one thing that all of the council was committed to do.
“If there was any way possible, we wanted to show how much we appreciate our employees,” Grissom said. “When we started looking at the budget, a raise was something that everyone agreed needed to be done, if there was a way.”
“This was a top priority for the council,” said Cummings.
Grissom pointed out the department heads have been good stewards with city money, and have done a good job staying within their budgets.
“Plus, our sales tax (revenue) has increased a little,” the mayor said. “It was enough to add the raises.”
Grissom said the town had a couple of new businesses that began operating in the past year, which helped tax revenues.
He said the new budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1, is $176,000 more than last year’s budget of $9 million.
“The new budget reflects the slight increase in revenue and our belief that the increase will continue,” Grissom said. “There’s no room for error; the budget has been as tight as it has ever been. But our department heads have done a good job managing their departments, and we expect them to continue that.”
“I’m proud of the budget and thankful we were able to do what we could for the employees,” Cummings said.