Waynesboro City Council, with no discussion, moved on Monday night to advance a 2023-2024 city budget based on a 77-cent property tax rate toward a final vote in two weeks.
The $61.5 million budget pushes back a proposed pay raise for city employees to December, and leaves the police department, already operating well under capacity, without two positions that had been included in City Manager Mike Hamp’s original budget proposal.
Hamp’s first stab at the budget came at an anticipated 79-cent tax rate. That proposal would have funded a 5 percent pay raise for city employees beginning on July 1 and would have allowed the PD to fill four positions that have been frozen for lack of city funding to fill them.
At the direction of the City Council, Hamp had to cut $421,000 from the 79-cent-funded budget to get anticipated revenues and spending into balance.
Holding off on giving city employees a pay raise for six months and leaving two police positions frozen will save the average city property taxpayer $54 this year.
That comes to $1.04 a week extra in your pocket.
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Chris Graham
