GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Greensboro City Council approved a $688 million budget proposal at Tuesday night’s meeting.
City leaders said the proposal includes an increase in fees for certain city services. Water and sewer fees will increase 4.5% and an increase to the monthly solid waste fee from $2.50 to $3.50 and household hazardous waste monthly fees from $0.60 to $0.97. City leaders said the increase will offset contracted service cost increases. The budget includes a city property tax rate of 63.25 cents per $100 property valuation.
The city will also use the money to hire 15 new firefighters for a new company to prepare for additional growth and annexation. They will also hire for new positions in the Minority and Women Business Enterprise office, the City Manager’s Office, Transportation, Water Resources, and Parks and Recreation departments, among others.
The budget also includes a pay increase for police officers and firefighters and new hires as follows:
- The budget includes increases to starting pay for fire and police personnel of nine percent and 7.4 percent, respectively.
- Sworn fire and police personnel will also receive market adjustments averaging 7.4 percent and 5.7 percent respectively, across all ranks.
The Greensboro City Manager says after conducting a labor market study, they found that compared to neighboring cities, they were significantly behind when it comes to starting salaries for firefighters and police officers.
"A starting fire officer will be $39,000 dollars for us in Greensboro. In another city that might be $43,000, in other 12 cities it could be 42, it could be 45 so you take the difference between them," said City Manager Taiwo Jaieyeoba.
Lt. Kenneth Johnson with the Greensboro Police Department says this comes at a good time when recruiting for law enforcement is tough.
"We're fighting a twofold front here with trying to compel these people to consider the career of law enforcement and in addition to considering the Greensboro Police Department," said Johnson.
The budget also includes an updated step program for all step plan employees, effective May 2023, which will increase the value between individual steps to four percent. Employees in the merit system will also receive an average four percent pay adjustment effective in May 2023.