The council also increased the city attorney’s salary by $6,000 to reflect a larger workload of cases. The 30-cent per hour raise will cost the city about $60,000 in additional personnel expenses in the new budget, Councilman Frank Havard said.

   The raise follows the council’s decision to pay $100 of employees’ health insurance costs and another raise approved earlier this year.

Councilman Danny Benson said the three actions equal about $1.05 per hour in additional pay and benefits since the new council took office.

   It was noted that some employees may not take health insurance through the city employees group, so they would not benefit from the city’s decision to pay a large portion of the premium.

   One reason behind the 30-cent raise was to help all employees with the cost of health insurance -- whether they get it through the city or through their spouse’s employer or from another provider.

    Mayor John Lemoine said a review of the budget indicated that the city could afford “to reward the employees who clean our streets, keep us safe and fight the fires in the city.”

    The 2015-16 budget is projecting total revenues of over $7.37 million compared to this past year’s total of over $6.35 million. However, $650,000 of that increase is a $450,000 state grant and a $200,000 loan to renovate the former Bethune High School property to establish a community center at the site.

   The city is projecting a slight increase in property taxes, permit/license fees, gaming revenue and other general revenue sources.  

 

    It is expecting a large decline in police fines, from $108,400 in 2014-15 to only $12,000 in 2015-16. That adjustment is apparently based on the Avoyelles Police Jury’s threat to have the Avoyelles District Attorney prosecute all cases in City Court as violations of state law and not city ordinances if Marksville carries through on its threat to pay only half of the City Court expenses.

    The new budget shows only $29,100 in City Court-related costs, compared to this past year’s $258,175. The city’s three sales taxes, totaling 2 cents, generated almost $3.22 million this year. Sales tax revenue is expected to increase slightly to almost $3.25 million.

Marksville is expecting an increases in revenue in the sewer fund, from $599,712 to $1,039,965. Again, the increase is largely due to a $424,000 grant for sewer improvements.

    The city is projecting only about $16,000 more in operating revenues this coming year. Operating expenses -- not counting the grant-funded capital outlay -- will be about $6,600 less than last year.

    The Water Department is expected to receive about $54,000 more in revenue this budget year. The department’s budget looks like it has been cut by about that amount, but that reduction is due to the fact that the city had $150,680 in grants and reimbursements in the department last year and only $43,500 this coming budget year.