EDITORIAL: City payroll soars in the face of tight budget realities

The Grand Island City Council is between a rock and hard place. There is tremendous pressure on the city budget and the city council is the last stop for keeping the budget in line.

There is more pressure on this year's council when it is noted that sales taxes are predicted to be up only $245,000 while personnel costs are to soar $1.2 million over the last budget.

The city council cannot impact the sales tax figures, but they can do something about city payroll costs. But they elected not to do that.

With union employees receiving handsome increases of 3.75 percent, department directors and non-union employees were also handed equally generous salary increases.  It should be noted that city administration had urged that department directors receive a stunning 4.75 percent increase, even with costs spiraling from every corner of the budget. 

Councilwoman Peg Gilbert appeared top be the lone voice of reason as she proposed to trim the pay increases for non-union employees to a more realistic 3 percent. Gilbert was trying to keep the budget in line with the dramatic challenges facing the city. Payroll costs, unlike sales tax revenues, are something the city can control.

The 3 percent request by Gilbert and later endorsed by Councilwoman Joyce Haase is perfectly sufficient, especially if the council were to look at increases given to employees of private companies in the city. Most of those employees would gleefully accept a 3 percent increase this year.

City employees are good employees and need to be taken care of in terms of pay levels and benefits. The benefit package is very generous. The pay levels are generally the same or higher than in private businesses in the area for comparable jobs and working conditions. The council certainly feels an obligation to reward those employees appropriately. Given the economics of the Grand Island area, 3 percent raises would be acceptable and would save the additional burden placed on the taxpayers.