Jackson's budget discourse continues, fairness of salary increases in question

The city council is scheduled to vote on the second reading of its highly contested budget proposal on Friday morning, and in the final 24 hours ahead of the meeting, a group of council members and concerned citizens met to discuss points of contention.

Led by Councilman Larry Lowrance, District 6, he sent a text to all city council members, notifying them of a discussion that would be held Thursday morning at Town & Country Realtors.

Councilman J.P. Stovall, District 1, and Councilwoman Candice Busby, District 3, were the sole council attendees.

Operating under an extended deadline, the City of Jackson has until Aug. 31 to submit the budget to the comptroller.

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Questions remain for council members

As raises continue to be disputed, Mayor Scott Conger took to social media on Wednesday where, on Facebook Live, defended the salary increases.

"Unapologetically, I will fight for the people doing the work," he said. "The employees that come to work every single day, the firefighters that spend 24 hours a day away from their family, police officers spend 12-hour shifts, those folks who are going out tonight at 7 o'clock and patching Highland, the people who are out there operating our claw trucks, that are cutting grass, that are working on potholes, that are building sidewalks, that are picking up the stuff that we throw away; I'm going to fight for them and I'm going to fight for what they deserve."

On Thursday, councilmembers concurred that a raise is deserved, but questions surrounding the fairness of its distribution and where the funding would come from remain.

"I want everybody to get a raise, I feel like they deserve it, but I'm not prepared to go to the bank and borrow money," Stovall said. "From a conservative standpoint, I don't think we can go and borrow money that we don't have just to fund raises."

Of the more than $5.5 million total budgeted for raises, $2.4 million is allocated for city departments, $2.1 million for the Jackson Police Department, and approximately $938,000 for the Jackson Fire Department.

Proposed salaries, in totality, are up 14.06% from the last fiscal year's budget, and questions surrounding the fairness of its distribution remain for Lowrance.

Amendments on the horizon

He suggested re-examining the proposed raises of every city department, outside of fire and police, and limiting each to a 5.5% increase.

"If there are people in the budget, and there could be, that deserve more and have extraordinary reasons why they are, all they've got to do is do a budget amendment and those people can be taken care of individually," Lowrance said.

"My question more is, is this being done fairly? Because there's a lot of 12% increases in there and a lot of 10% increases in there."

Busby, who echoed similar sentiments, expressed concerns over the extended tenure of workers in departments like Public Works who are still limited to earning $15 an hour.

"I do respect a lot of city employees and the hard work that they do, but don't think that we're evil because we're asking questions, we have a right to do that," she said.

Conversations revealed a preparedness by councilmembers to propose an amendment at Friday's special-called meeting. Busby says the Aug. 31 deadline won't be impacted if an amendment is proposed.

"There's not going to be enough votes to pass it, so it's going to be a dead issue," she said. "I would be shocked if it is passed and those amendments shouldn't affect the August 31 deadline because the budget would still be passed before then."

The council will vote on Friday at 9 a.m. in City Hall on the second reading of the fiscal year budget.

Sarah Best is a reporter for The Jackson Sun. To support local journalism, subscribe to the Daily Briefing here

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Jackson's budget discourse continues, fairness of salary increases in question