Ridgeland employees to see 5% pay increase

RIDGELAND — Following a three-decades long trend, no tax increase is planned here, but city employees can expect five-percent across-the-board pay raises following budget approval this week.

Mayor Gene F. McGee said he is pleased with the FY 2023 budget and is excited to see it put into effect after aldermen approved the proposed budget unanimously on the consent agenda in a 7-0 vote at Tuesday’s regularly city board meeting. 

“I am excited that we are moving forward into the next fiscal year with a great budget,” McGee said. “We continue to see strong growth in the city.”

Raises will be a key feature of the FY 2023 budget, which runs over 150 pages. City employees are expected to receive a 5% raise. Last year’s budget also included a 5% raise for city employees.

Alderman-at-Large D.I. Smith said that inflation was a factor in calculating the raises for city employees.

“It is always a stressful time and requires a lot of hard work from the staff,” Smith said.”This year was more difficult because of inflation and its impact on our employee's salaries.”

Smith said that expected COVID-19 pandemic-related relief funds added another level of complexity.

“Our staff worked extremely hard,” Smith said. “Particularly the budget people and staff directors who had a lot of meaningful and important input on this budget. We will keep our fingers crossed that the economy stays strong and inflation goes down and we continue to have strong sales tax collections moving forward.”

The board voted unanimously at the first meeting in September to levy tax millage at 11.27 for the general fund and 8.76 for the debt service fund and a total of 20.03 mills. McGee noted that is the same millage the board has levied for more than 30 years and has been a point of pride for his administration year after year.

“I am proud to say we have been able to keep taxes the same for more than 30 years,” McGee said.

The proposed FY2023 budget has estimated total revenues of $27,417,228 and estimated total expenditures of $30, 563,162.92. 

City Clerk Paula Tierce has noted that these estimates represent conservative forecasts specifically for revenues. 

For example, in FY 2022 the estimated total revenues were $24.5 million with expenditures estimated at more than $27.8 million. The latest figures have actual revenues for FY 2022 year to date exceeding $26 million and expenditures whittled down to around $21.5 million.

The estimated general fund balance for the beginning of the fiscal year is $22,811,329 with an end-of-year balance at $19,665,394.

The FY 2022 Fiscal Year ends on Sept. 30 and the new one begins on Oct. 1.