City leaders vote to give pay raises and to increase millage rate

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- It took two tries, but the Starkville Board of Aldermen managed to hold a meeting Tuesday night and conduct some important business.

After not meeting a quorum at the scheduled time, Mayor Lynn Spruill called for a recess until 9 p.m. in hopes of getting at least one more alderman to attend.

Alderman David Little ended up being the forth member to fill out their quorum.

During the meeting, the board passed its budget for the next fiscal year, agreed to give pay raises to city workers, and voted to implement a 1.5 millage increase.

The millage increase will go towards funding the pay raises for city workers.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said passing a millage increase was a tough decision, but she felt it was a decision that had to be made.

“In this case I believe that the city of Starkville has some needs that we have been putting off,” said Mayor Spruill. “We have equipment that we need, PERS (Public Employees’ Retirement System) has gone up for the state of Mississippi with no corresponding increase via the state as to how we would pay for that. There are a number of things that include health insurance, old equipment, pay raises for our employees and all of those things that make your city the place where you have employees who want to work, you have people who want to be here, so it’s time for us to take care of these things to the best of our ability, and a 1.5 millage increase was necessary.”

Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins and Ward 7 Alderman Henry Vaughn were absent for the meeting.

City leaders also accepted a master plan for it’s parks during the meeting on Tuesday.