Published: June 23, 2009 11:17 pm      

Raceland approves pay raise, budget

RACELAND — The Raceland City Council approved a 50 cent per hour pay raise for employees and a budget for 2009-10 this week.

Council members met on Monday to approve the second reading of the pay raise.

The raise was approved with a vote of 4 to 3 with Mayor Don McKee casting the tie-breaking vote.

McKee said he voted to approve the raise because city employees were very deserving of the extra money.

The raise will be retroactive from Feb. 23, he said. Employees will receive the extra money in future paychecks. The raise will cost the city about $320 extra a week, McKee said.

It brings the wage of the highest paid full-time city employees to $13.00 an hour.

Council Member Ann Catlin said she voted against the raise because city worker contracts called for a 25 cent raise and left any retroactive payments to the discretion of the council.

“The city cannot afford the back pay,” Catlin said.

On Tuesday the council approved the second reading of the budget with a vote of 5 to 1.

Council Member Tom Cumpton was the only member to vote against the budget.

Cumpton said he didn’t think the projections in the budget were correct. He said it wasn’t usual for the city to make money in a budget.

But McKee said the budget passed was good and the projections accurate.

According to the budget, the city will spend about $1.7 million next year and take in about $1.8 million.

In a budget presented last week, expenditures in the general fund were more than $100,000 more than income.

In the approved budget, income is about $6,700 more than expenditures.

Police Chief Don Sammons, who helped compile the budget, said projections for how much money would be brought in by property taxes and how much money would need to be spent on personnel were calculated incorrectly on the budget last week.

Money for uniforms for Water Works employees was also included in the general fund as well as in the Water Works budget, Sammons said. It was later removed from the general fund.

KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.