City of Columbia fiscal budget for 2021 and 2022 include payroll budget improvements, Cares Act and the American Rescue Plan

COLUMBIA. Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia held a work session Wednesday to discuss the fiscal budget for 2021 and 2022.

In the work session held at Columbia City Council, council members discussed the necessity of increasing the city worker payroll budget.

Pat Fowler Ward 1 City Council member addressed the rest of the council saying there is more the city can do for their city workers.

Fowler said in order to have them be productive members of society and add to Columbia's economy it is imperative we adjust the wage gap.

Fowler said the city should look at paying wages and high paying wages separately and adjust them accordingly. She said because of the low-paying wages people are not looking for jobs.

City Council discussed how to address the disparities people suffered that were amplified by COVID-19 by increasing the budget but not increasing the expenditures.

In the fiscal year budget for 2020, the city was able to give employees midpoint adjustments, time-in-class adjustments, and across-the-board increases to salaries but Fowler said it was not enough.

John Glascock said due to the pandemic they had to cut 60 jobs because of the current budget and there are currently 170 vacancies in city jobs.

City council talked about using money to fund homeless services, community activities

Glascock said the city is receiving funding to help services that took a big hit from the Pandemic like the airport, parking and transportation. He said they shifted some of the money from transportation sales tax out to the airport and the roads and sidewalks.

Glascock said the money the city received from the Cares Act will help to fund a lot of those operations and will be put towards the construction of the new terminal at the Columbia Airport.

Fire and police were reimbursed and 2.9 million dollars from the Cares Act.

The American Rescue Plan is one-time money and has to be spent within four years. The council talked about using the money to address disparities and stimulate the economy.

The money from the American Rescue plan will be put towards addressed city wide issues.

The General Tax Fund includes property and sales tax and holds most of Columbia tax payers taxes.

The General Tax Fund helps pay for big-city departments like police and fire and currently has a large budget. Sales tax is up five percent from this time in 2019.

The sales tax comes from citizen sales and over the Pandemic sales tax increased and so did the funding.