In a preliminary budget hearing, Greenville City Council members have agreed to increase tax rates to fund pay increases for police and fire department personnel.
Currently, the millage rate is at 71.41 and the increase is anticipated to go into effect at the beginning of the new fiscal year — Oct. 1, 2021. The increase would be four mills.
“It is long overdue for us to show our financial appreciation for police and fire,” Mayor Errick Simmons said Monday. “Today, the Council unanimously voted for public safety as well as retention of first responders in this community.”
Right from the start of Monday’s special session, Councilman and Vice Mayor James Wilson was expressly adamant about putting the increase of fire and police personnel pay at the forefront of the council’s discussion.
So much so, the American Red Cross was the only on a list of community partnerships he agreed to allocate funding for at $10,000 as a way of exhausting every means to increase the pay of those working in public safety.
Noting the council’s previous talks about what could be done for the police and fire departments, Wilson said, “I will only vote for the American Red Cross, other than that, I will not vote to give anybody else any money,” as the council proceeded to vote on the amount of funding to allocate for community partnership requests.
The increase in millage rate would yield a net of approximately $500,000 in actual wage raises to be dispensed at the council’s discretion.
