SPRINGDALE — A recommendation by a City Council committee remained unchanged after it met Monday with about 50 city employees and family members.
The council is scheduled to vote on giving a $600 bonus to full-time city employees at its 5 p.m. meeting today. The time of the meeting was moved up from 6 p.m.
The employees, mainly from the fire and police departments, asked the committee to consider a step increase. A step increase is a bump in pay to reflect increased value because of another year of experience for the employee.
People recently hired are making the same as people who were hired three years ago, said Dean Bitner, a representative of the Springdale Firefighters Association.
“The city is thousands of dollars behind its pay scale,” Bitner said.
Mayor Doug Sprouse advised giving the bonus after looking at the city’s finances through the first five months of the year. The committee, at a meeting a week ago, sent the bonus to the full council with a recommendation for approval.
“I don’t see giving a step increase until we see our tax receipts rise,” Sprouse said. “It doesn’t make economic sense.”
The cost of the bonuses would be about $294,000.
City sales tax income has continued to fall, Sprouse said. Increases in county sales taxes and state turnback money boosted the city’s projected income by $336,000, according to Wyman Morgan, city director of administration and financial affairs.
Those increases make the bonus possible. If the bonus became a raise, the city would be committed to paying the money each year, Sprouse said.
All the council members would like to give employees a raise, said Alderman Jim Reed, but the city doesn’t have the money.
Firefighter Dudley Gideon suggested the city should raise its hotel and motel tax from 1.5 percent to 2 percent and add a restaurant tax of 2 percent. That would match the cities around Springdale, he said.
“We can’t leave any money on the table,” Gideon said.
The council could approve the tax increase, according to state law. Those taxes would have to go to the city Advertising and Promotion Commission, also by state law, said Jeff Harper, city attorney. The commission, however, could pay for some services whose cost is paid from the city general fund, he said.
Money spent on parks is one possibility, he said.
A 2 percent tax on both restaurants and hotel and motels would raise an estimated $750,000 per year, Morgan said, compared to $200,000 raised by the current tax level.
“We need to keep our employees in mind when we work on next year’s budget,” said Alderman Brad Bruns.