Chubbuck Approves Pay, Property Tax Increase
The Chubbuck City Council approved a two percent increase in property taxes in order to give city employees a pay raise.
The council had been considering up to a three percent increase. Nothing will be official until the city budget is passed. The council will not vote on the actual budget until Sept., but this is setting them up for what they will vote for.
That fired up some local people, who said the council should not be able to give themselves a raise and an increase in health benefits when many of the people who pay their salaries — the taxpayers — do not get raises, and some do not even have health insurance.
The raises will not affect the mayor or members of the city council.
The council agreed with the people, but was concerned about under-paying its best employees, and potentially losing them. One local woman proposed the idea of a year-end bonus, which seemed like a good idea for some of the council.
“At the end of this year, we can give bonuses to those who have walked this walk with us. That just seems, that just seems like a good year to try to do something like that,” said council member Kevin England.
The budget has to be set by Sept. 7 so that it can be published to the public. The council has another meeting the day before, Sept. 6, and will discuss the budget then as well.
