Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly’s administration launched his second term last week by presenting the City Council with a functionally flat budget for next year that provides pay increases for city employees but leaves out raises for police and firefighters — for now.
“This year’s fiscal constraints leave one glaring omission: pay raises for sworn police and firefighters,” Kelly wrote in his budget message. “Our first responders are underpaid, not just when you consider the work they do — putting their lives at risk to keep us safe — but also relative to competing public safety agencies in our market and in peer cities around the region.
“That’s not just wrong, it’s risky,” he added. “If we can’t fill our academy classes and keep our best sworn employees, we won’t be able to meet our city’s needs. That’s why my administration intends to come back later this year with a separate proposal on compensation for Chattanooga’s bravest men and women. We simply must.”
In 2021, the city amended its budget midyear, with the council approving a budget under a new certified tax rate, to try to capture some of the new revenue that was available because of reappraisals, Kevin Roig, Kelly’s newly appointed chief of staff, told the Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday. Four members on the panel of 11 are new.