Brooksville Budget Includes Merit Raise For Employees

City employees who are doing a good job will get a raise, if a modest one, after all.

The city council at its final budget hearing late Wednesday found room in a tight budget for a 2 percent merit raise for city workers.

The council stuck with a millage rate of 6.069 mills - a quarter mill less than last year - that city staff had used to balance this year's $9.02 million general fund budget. The total budget is $32.5 million.

A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value. At that rate, a property worth $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would see a tax bill of $606. The new rate will lop off about $144,000 from the general fund budget.

The raise would be given at an employee's anniversary date if they earn a certain number of points on their performance evaluation. It could cost the city as much as $48,629 for the 2009 fiscal year. The money will come from the city's unallocated reserve fund.

The raises would reduce that reserve fund to about $870,000, or roughly 12 percent of the general fund. The council had already cut the fund by $266,000 to allow for the lower ad valorem rate.

That's still on the high end of the 5 to 15 percent range recommended by public policy experts, City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha told the council.

The tentative budget hadn't included a raise for employees. But three other council members agreed with Councilmember Joe Bernardini, who argued the city has frozen hiring, is cutting positions and asking employees to take on additional responsibilities.

"I just think we ought to reward our employees for a job well done," Bernardini said Thursday.

Councilmember Lara Bradburn agreed.

"We're cutting positions and asking employees to do more, and trying to keep the best and productive employees," Bradburn said. "If you're going to do that, you should reward them for that production."

Mayor David Pugh Jr. dissented in the 4 to 1 vote, saying city employees should expect to make sacrifices in tight budget times to help prevent more positions from getting cut.

The city has already eliminated or left vacant some two dozen positions for this budget year, bringing the number of full-time employees to 110.

The council also decided to leave employees with the option on their insurance plans to use a health reimbursement arrangement, or HRA. Norman-Vacha had recommended cutting the HRA option to save some $22,000.

Bradburn said she didn't get all the cuts she wanted in this year's budget but joined the rest of the council in praising Norman-Vacha and the rest of the city's staff for streamlining government.

"Overall, it's a strong budget and it's a victory for community," Bradburn said.