City Council gave unanimous first approval to the fiscal year 2017 budget at its meeting earlier this week. The $37.2 million budget includes no tax increases and includes a four percent projected increase in General Fund revenue.
Spending increases include a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise for City employees, 10 percent incresae for the City Employee medical fund, $220,000 for building facilities maintenance, and around $114,000 for mandatory increases in retirement.
In other business, Council took gave final approval to an ordiance placing the issue of Sunday alcohol sales in stores before city voters this November. The measure passed in a 6-1 vote with Council member Jerome Rice voting against. City voters previosuly passed a referendum in 2003 allowing restaurants and bars to serve alcohol, but stores were still barred from selling alcohol for off-premises consumption. The referendum will appear on the general election ballot on November 8.
For more on Monday’s City Council meeting, see the full video and roundup of the live tweets from the meeting.