Proposed budget includes pay raises

LA MARQUE — Employees would receive a 5 percent raise under the proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

The first workshop to discuss the proposed budget will be Tuesday.

The proposed budget includes no tax increases and no increases in water, sewer and sanitation fees.

City manager Carol McLemore said the raises would not go into effect until April, six months into the new budget. That’s about the time the new Super Wal-Mart is slated to be open.

“We’re being very conservative,” said McLemore. “We’re expecting to get about three months worth of revenue from the store.”

Construction on the 220,000-square-foot store will start soon. Bulldozers have been clearing the land for nearly two weeks. The city issued a building permit to the store Tuesday.

The proposed raises would have a 2.5 percent impact on the budget. The 5 percent raises would be given across-the-board.

The only municipal employees that haven’t been budgeted for raises yet are workers in the police and fire departments. They are in collective bargaining negotiations with the city.

McLemore said that besides the opening of Wal-Mart, the city also had a slight increase in its property taxes and retired its debt on a fire truck.

McLemore said that the proposed budget did not reflect any expected revenue from recently purchased Factory Outlet Malls.

The new owner of the outlet center, Virginia-based Sugar Oak Properties, has landed Vanity Fair as one of its anchor stores.




What: Budget workshop. When: 6 p.m. Tuesday. Where: City Hall, 1109-B Bayou Road.