Behind budget smiles, big fiscal issues remain

The picture atop the front page of The Commercial Appeal Wednesday showed a jubilant Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland greeting an equally jubilant Brian Collins, his chief financial officer, after the Memphis City Council Tuesday unanimously passed the city’s budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year that begins July 1.

Who can blame them? For the first time in a long time, the 13-member council, which has six new members, approved the budget without a lot of rancor or down-to-the-wire histrionics.

The new members, along with Strickland, took office Jan. 1. Strickland, who was elected to the council in 2007, has served as the body’s chairman and chairman of its budget committee.

Maybe that service helped smooth the budget deliberations. It probably helped that since this was his first budget proposal, he was not lugging any baggage from previous budget battles.

And this year, it seems that most of the council members, including council Chairman Kemp Conrad, while not rubber-stamping Strickland’s budget proposal, appeared set on avoiding a fight.

The result: a $666.9 million city budget that gives all employees a pay increase of at least 1.5 percent July 1 without raising property taxes.

Strickland and the council deserve a pat on the back for working in a collaborative manner, but he and council members should maintain a focus on the need to continue reducing expenses because the city still has looming budget troubles.

Under the proposed budget, police officers were already set to get pay increases of at least 2.75 percent at a cost to the city of $3.8 million, and firefighters were getting a 2 percent raise next year at a cost of $1.9 million. The 1.5 percent raise won’t apply to them.

Last year the council voted to give all city employees a 1 percent raise, except for police officers and firefighters, who received a 2 percent raise. As of April 19, MPD had 2,045 commissioned officers, down from a high of 2,452 in 2011.

We had earlier questioned in this space the prudence of giving city employees raises when the city’s debt issue, including once again not fully paying enough money into its pension system to meet a state mandate to have the fund solvent by 2020, is still a problem.

We’ve not changed our mind, but understand city officials believe pay hikes were needed to stop the exodus of police officers and firefighters upset about the council approving cuts in benefits two years ago. Raises for other employees were unnecessary and not in keeping with a city struggling with such serious financial challenges.

Those across-the-board raises only increase the necessity for the mayor and council to find ways to reduce the size and cost of government in future budgets.

That seemed to be on the mind of council Budget Committee Chairman Edmund Ford Jr. when he said the pay increase approved Tuesday could be the last time the council votes for a raise for all employees, regardless of merit.

“Employees received raises across the board, but it’s important employees know the city is moving to performance-based metrics,” he said.

Taxpayers, who believe government should be run like a business, will be pleased when that happens.

We’ll be curious to see if collaboration will rule the day during next year’s budget deliberations.

That will be a true test of whether our new mayor can produce, and the council approve, a budget that demonstrates major movement he has promised on reining in the size and cost of government in our shrinking city. We’ll celebrate then, too.