Workers spoke. Did Charlotte listen? City will give some a big boost in pay

Charlotte City Workers Union members marched from Marshall Park to the government center to demand 12% raises last month.

It may have worked: The city agreed to a compromise this month to an initially proposed 6% raise and gave its final OK Monday.

As part of Monday’s $3.3 billion Charlotte city budget adoption, minimum salaries for city employees jump from about $40,000 to $46,200. The city’s lowest-paid employees will see fruits of the agreement beginning in January. People higher on the pay scale, though, will see shallower increases.

Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston, who’s running for NC labor commissioner, was the sole opposing vote for the budget beginning July 1 and covering the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

“This is going to be the last budget I vote on, but it’s going to be the first budget I vote against,” Winston said. “There’s more that we could’ve done this year, more that we should’ve done this year.”

The budget drops property taxes to a revenue-neutral rate, 26.04 cents per $100 in valuation, which means the city won’t bring in more money from property taxes than economic growth provides. Last week, Mecklenburg commissioners voted to hike the county’s tax rate 1.6 cents above revenue neutral for the upcoming fiscal year.

Councilwoman LaWana Mayfield supported the budget, but said she explored options with the city manager for a one-cent increase.

“What is that going to do for services when we still have almost 100 people a day moving to the city?” Mayfield said. “We worked hard on (the budget) and yes we can do better.”

City Manager Marcus Jones warned the council in May that future tax increases will come if the city wants to keep up its level of services and initiatives.

Each employee will receive at least a $3,600 per year pay increase in fiscal year 2024 under the new city budget, which includes adjustments for all full-time hourly employees.

The budget also includes pay for on-call Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers and maintains historical pay parity between police and firefighters — something fire employees requested during a public hearing.

Two union city workers in attendance applauded as Councilwoman Dimple Ajmera spoke about the budget’s support for city employees.

“This budget has it all,” Ajmera said.

Nonprofits to receive one-time ARPA funding

The budget otherwise largely represents what Jones introduced to the council and public last month. City employee pay comes out of the $767 million general fund that keeps city departments afloat. The remaining $2.5 billion funds the city’s public transit, airport, water system and debt service for capital projects.

The city will allocate money it received from the American Rescue Plan Act for pandemic response toward a number of nonprofits thanks to Charlotte City Council members adding funding during an informal straw vote meeting.

Nonprofits receiving money include:

▪ $230,000 for Block Love Charlotte, a local human rights organization that provides food, resources and education to those in need.

▪ $100,000 toward For the Struggle, a community group fighting racial and social injustice.

▪ $100,000 for The Males Place, a life skills development organization for teenage boys.

▪ $50,000 for the Carolina Metro Reds, a baseball league for disadvantaged youth.

▪ An additional $125,000 for Crisis Assistance Ministry, a non-profit serving those facing financial struggles. This brings the organization’s total funding in this budget to $550,000.

“This budget reflects how we feel about nonprofits,” Councilman James “Smuggie” Mitchell said. “I hope the citizens will be very proud.”