The city of Yazoo City will not be increasing total millage for the upcoming fiscal year, but the budget will include a pay raise for elected officials, salary-based employees and hourly employees.
However, the city’s financial advisor Marshall Conico recommended city leaders rethink including those pay raises in the proposed budget to ensure long-term financial stability.
It was a recommendation that did not settle well with one alderman during the Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.
“We don’t care what you recommend,” said Alderman Dr. Jack Varner, to Conico.
All the city aldermen said the city can afford the pay raise. And they said that increasing the salary of elected officials is deserved due to an increased workload and adjusting to the cost of living.
The Budget
Figures
The City of Yazoo City is now operating with projected total budget revenue of $5,690,325. Of that amount, 47.24 percent or $2,688,325 of such revenue is obtained through ad valorem taxes. For the next fiscal year, the proposed budget has total projected revenue of $6,052,887.26. Of that amount, 46.86 percent or $2,836,387.26 is proposed to be financed through a total ad valorem tax levy.
The City of Yazoo City plans to operate fiscal year 2018 with an ad valorem tax millage rate of 76.37 mills compared to 75.32 for fiscal year 2017.
The Yazoo City Public School District plans to operate fiscal year 2018 with an ad valorem tax millage rate of 54.12 mills compared to 55.17 for fiscal year 2017.
The overall ad valorem tax millage rate is 130.49 mills for fiscal year 2018 compared to 130.49 for fiscal year 2017.
The Pay Raise
The subject that caused tension during Monday’s meeting was the proposal to raise salaries in the upcoming fiscal year.
A proposal was made in an Aug. 21 special meeting to increase the elected officials’ pay by $8,000 per position, increase every salaried employee by $1,000 annually and every hourly worker by 40 cents per hour.
Readjustments and the transferring of surplus funds could cover the pay increases. But Conico said the budget may be difficult to balance in the future with an increase in overall personnel budget expenditures.
Conico recommending revisiting the budget, and did not include the pay raise figures in the proposal presented Monday.
Varner said he wasn’t concerned with Conico’s recommendation and that Conico should have included the figures, as instructed by the board.
“You are to follow the order of this board,” Varner said. “If he would have brought it back like we ordered it…for us to pay him that kind of money and him not follow the board, I am not pleased with it, not one damn bit.”
Varner said Conico should revise the budget proposal, following the board’s order.
“If we decide we can’t afford it, we will amend it,” Varner said. “That was a direct order from this board.”
Alderman Aubry Brent Jr. said a tight time-frame is closing in on the board concerning its budget, which must be approved by Sept. 15.
“The window is closing on getting this budget done,” Brent said. “We can go ahead and approve this budget, and the law allows us to come back and make amendments.”
“It’s not a matter of finance,” Varner said. “I want to know why he didn’t follow the board’s order.”
Varner said with the proposed budget, there would be $1,195,992 in surplus funds, which would allow financial stability.
“He is saying it’s not reoccurring dollars,” said Mayor Diane Delaware. “In other words, you can have a million dollars in the bank but you can’t have that same million dollars in the bank every year. You may spend that money.”
Delaware made the motion to accept the budget proposal, but that it would also include the order that was passed in the Aug. 21 meeting concerning pay raises.
But the action carried with Delaware casting the sole vote in opposition.
“I do not recommend we give any elected official a raise,” she concluded.
Conico said he would follow the board’s decision, but he went on record saying that he doesn’t think the budget is financially stable going forward.
The Board’s Response
With the only opposing vote, Delaware said she was in support of giving deserving city employees pay raises.
“I am supportive of a performance raise,” Delaware said. “I am not supportive of a raise for elected officials. They may not like me for that. We need to provide raises to employees. We have a structured salary plan. We should look at that and consider it as the base for any raises we may provide. I am not for making a decision and not understanding the long-term implications of it.”
Alderman Ron Johnson said there was nothing much to discuss about the matter.
“We put it in the budget to give everybody across the board a raise,” Johnson said. “There is a worry that we would go into a big deficit. That’s not the case.”
Alderman Gregory Robertson said he believes the employees of Yazoo City deserve a raise.
“That was one of the things I ran for office on, trying to bring the salaries of employees up,” Robertson said.
Varner said he would like to keep city employees fairly close to the salary base of surrounding municipalities.
“I want to keep increasing our employees where we could get them to $9.50 an hour,” Varner added. “We are getting there.”
Robertson said the city council also deserves a raise, particularly with the increased number of meetings during the current administration.
“It’s our duty to do that, but we should also be given a raise,” Robertson said. “And I believe we will be stable enough to afford it.”
Varner agreed that the aldermen deserve the raise.
“Back then, we had two two-hour meetings a month,” Varner said. “Now we are meeting four to five times a month, averaging four to six hours.”
Brent said he has served on the city council in a capacity for close to 20 years, and elected officials have never been given a significant raise.
“When (Varner) and I first went into office, we are making the same if not less now, and that was 20 years ago,” Brent said. “I know this will get criticism, but you can’t buy today what you could 20 years ago with the same amount of money.”
Varner said two years after was elected to the city council in 1995, the aldermen did receive a small raise. However, he said a few years later, that pay was cut by 10 percent.
Five years later, Varner said the aldermen were able to regain five percent of that salary back during more prosperous times.
“But the aldermen are still being paid a little less than what we were in 1995,” Varner said.
Varner also said the cost of living is significantly different than what it was 20 years ago.
Varner said the city can afford the salary increases.
“We have finally got our parkway going with a major retailer out there,” Varner said, referring to Walmart. “One month’s increase in tax income will pay for the aldermen’s pay increase for a year. Come next year, we have still about $1.2 million carryover. We can afford it, and the aldermen are justified in accepting the raise.”
Too Many Employees?
Varner said those concerned with finances should take a look at the number of employees a town the city of Yazoo City has.
“We are a town of 11,000 people with 115 employees,” Varner said. “That is 76 percent of our budget. We need 90 employees, and pay them what they are worth. We have too many employees for a town our size.”
