Mayor David O’Mary introduced the proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 during the Tuesday meeting of the Jasper City Council. O’Mary said it was the largest budget in the history of the 143-year-old city.
The budget presented to the council projects revenue at $33,255,000 with expenditures at $22,938,000. There are also transfers set at $8,817,000 with O’Mary saying the largest of those being the annual payment on Jasper High School, which is more than $3,000,000. The beginning fund balance is $19,384,000. Those numbers would leave the ending balance at $20,884,000.
“We fully believe we will see a more significant increase than that in the budget assuming our economy doesn’t go south,” O’Mary said. “Our current reserve balance represents 19 times the amount it was five and a half years ago when I took office.”
The budget will be voted on by the council at its next meeting on Tuesday, September 6.
The budget includes a $1.5 million new pay plan for full-time city employees. The plan was introduced at the last council meeting and approved unanimously on Tuesday. The pay increase is not a certain percentage across the board but goes by job description to bring Jasper to market value on their pay for each job description. O’Mary said all of the 200 city employees will be affected favorably by the plan.
The pay plan will now go to the Jasper Civil Service Board for approval. If approved, it will take effect on Oct. 1.
Figures for the pay plan have not been released by the city. O’Mary said it will be rolled out to department heads once approved by the civil service board.
“We are following the order of things,” O’Mary said. “We’ll now be rolling it out to the civil service board so they can act on it at their next meeting. We are not trying to keep it under wraps. Procedurally, that’s just how its supposed to be done.”
