Spending pledge for LOST funds returns

Council to vote on spending for public safety

BY TIM CHITWOOD - tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com --

City leaders again will consider a resolution pledging to spend a proposed sales tax the way Mayor Jim Wetherington has promised to spend it.

At its 5:30 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, Columbus Council will take up the resolution pledging that 70 percent of the $36 million a sales tax would annually generate will go to public safety, with 30 percent going to roads, sewers, bridges and other infrastructure. City administrators also plan to provide more detailed information on where the money will go if voters approve the tax in a July 15 referendum.

The resolution is to reassure voters worried about how the money will be spent. But regardless what current city leaders promise, they cannot by law bind future councils to it.

Council was to vote on the resolution April 8, but instead voted to postpone it. Because part of the sales tax revenue would be devoted to improving police pay, some councilors questioned whether the city also would upgrade the salaries of government workers who aren't in public safety.

Among those raising that question was Mayor Pro-Tem Evelyn Pugh, who on Friday said she's now satisfied with the pay raises the mayor proposed in his fiscal year 2009 budget and supports the tax resolution.

In presenting a proposed $210.7 million city budget last week, Wetherington included $4.5 million to take all city workers' pay to what a University of Georgia study has said is equal to what similar-sized organizations pay. That progression to what's called 100 percent of market pay began in the 2007 fiscal year, when city workers' pay was raised to 92 percent of the market. Before that, city workers were paid at a level equal to 81 percent of market pay, researchers said.

This fiscal year, council raised city pay to 98 percent of the market.

The mayor's new budget proposal also includes "longevity" raises for experienced workers. Those with two to nine years' experience would get a 2.5 percent raise; those with 10 years or more would get 5 percent. Council will begin its budget deliberations at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The proposed sales tax for city operations will be on the July ballot with party primaries for state and local offices. Absentee voting in that election starts June 2. The last day to register is June 16.

Advance voting will be July 7-11, when Muscogee will open two new satellite polls, one at Columbus State University's Cunningham Center, 3100 Gentian Blvd., and another at the Frank D. Chester Recreation Center, 1441 Benning Drive. Those will be in addition to advance voting polls at the Columbus Public Library on Macon Road and the elections office in the west wing of the city Government Center on First Avenue downtown.