Baxter employees will get a raise, but not at the level Aldermen had hoped, as the board approved the new fiscal year budget on first reading Tuesday night.
Baxter officials looked at the possibility of giving employees a $1-$2 per hour raise across the board. Baxter Mayor Danny Holmes said it was a tough budget, and the city ultimately settled on a 50-cent raise.
“We were thrilled to death to pass the budget tonight on the first reading and give employees raises,” Holmes said. “It’s maybe not exactly you know, what they wanted, but to me, a raise is a raise, and we appreciate our employees.”
Holmes said the city was able to provide raises without raising property taxes. Holmes said the town was able to prevent increasing property taxes by cutting capital budgets.
“We cut a lot of budgets that people were asking for just because we didn’t know if we could afford it or not,” Holmes said. “Mrs. Sharon (City Recorder Sharon Carlile) has picked and pulled and looked at every dime she could pull out, but you know I feel good, I feel good about our budget this year.”
Holmes said he is hopeful that the town’s revenue will turn out better than what is projected.
“What we are going to do is come back and look at it again here in a few months and just see where our revenue is,” Holmes said. “You know, our sales tax is down, our building permits are down, and still down, but we are hoping that will change.”
In other business, approved the second reading of an ordinance to rezone 306 Main Street from Residential to General Commercial.
The board also approved the execution of a contract with T-DOT for the removal of utilities on Ditty Road.
