During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange asked for a budget increase in the upcoming fiscal year.
Strange proposed a $250 million budget — an $8 million increase from FY18 — that would fund public safety, merit-based raises as well as a one-time payment for retirees.
The mayor’s proposed budget includes:
- $3 million for health care for those active and retirees called an “internal service fund”
- $1.7 million increases to the Montgomery Police Department and $1.3 million for the Montgomery Fire Department, including a merit increase for “deserving employees.”
- $1.2 million for public safety
- $500k for a one-time payment to retirees
- $1.5 million in additional neighborhood paving, intersection upgrades and striping (nearly $225k per district)
Strange proffered several ways the city will pay for the increase:
- The city would raise $3 million with a 2-cent gas tax: from $0.04 to $0.06
- $3 million from a general increase in sales and lodging taxes
- $2 million of those dollars by reducing city sanitation costs by limiting the trash pick up days from three days a week down to two.