Spartanburg City Council approves budget, includes “step pay” plan for firefighters

Jun. 29—Spartanburg City Council on Monday gave final approval to a $44.8 million spending plan for 2021-22 that is 5% higher than last year, holds the line on taxes and fees and gives all 409 city employees a 3% cost of living pay increase.

Once again, dozens of city firefighters showed up in hopes council would reverse its decision to fund only a part of the pay increase that Fire Chief Marion Blackwell recommended.

The budget contains $430,000 in pay increases for roughly 74 paid firefighters — an average of 13.7%, or $5,400 apiece, according to City Manager Chris Story.

Blackwell recommended $628,000 — or $8,400 per firefighter, but earlier this month council adopted the tentative budget with the $430,000 recommended by Story.

Benjamin Baker of The Professional Fire Fighters Association of South Carolina urged council to fund the full amount of the requested pay increase. He noted that while many of the city's firefighters did not have families to provide for or need of family insurance now, that could change quickly.

"Our fire department is very young. We have 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds; they don't have families. But what's going to happen in a couple years? They're going to start looking for that (full family) coverage, they're gonna start searching for better packages to go work for," Baker said.

Baker argued that pay increases would be necessary to keep the firefighters they are training today and to prevent an experience gap that could lead to poor service.

In discussion, Councilwoman Erica Brown, who voted against the tentative budget June 14, was also concerned about retention.

"These folks, these men and women, are top-notch. No doubt about it. But if you think that other municipalities in this upstate region aren't looking at our folks and salivating over the fact that they are some of the highest-trained individuals in the upstate and waiting to pluck these folks off of our hands because we aren't doing enough to keep them here, you're wrong," Brown said.

The budget was ultimately approved without changes Monday at a 4:3 vote with council members Brown, Ruth Littlejohn, and Mayor Junie White opposing, following a failed motion by Brown and Littlejohn to amend the budget to provide the $628,000 in firefighter pay increases by drawing from the city's general fund.

According to Story, the budget includes a new step pay plan designed to better compensate firefighters based on their rank and experience.

The base salary will also increase in the budget, from $33,500 to $37,000, with step increases paying as high as $53,000, he said.

According to Salary.com, the average median salary for firefighters in South Carolina is $44,875.

Councilman Jerome Rice said he felt the 13.7 percent increase and step pay plan was a great start, but wanted to revisit the issue in the future.

"Some of us will be here next year. Some of will be here the year after next; some of us will be here even longer than that and that's how we assure you all that we will continue to look at this," Councilman Jerome Rice said. "They need to hold us to this council meeting today."

Firefighter Jared Van Ek, as he addressed supporters following the vote, said they would be back to talk about it again in the near future.

"I don't think they've talked this much about the fire department in maybe 20 years, that was some really good discussion they had in both meetings. I just want to remind everybody that we came away, still with something that we've never had," Van Ek said. "And we're not done pushing for it. We made a lot of progress. We've had open conversations with people that we've never had the opportunity of having before and that's going to benefit us going forward."

The new budget keeps the property tax rate unchanged at 104.4 mills, or $10.44 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The budget anticipates $17.7 million in property tax revenues, a 6% increase over last year's budget. It also projects $17.7 million in fees, licenses and permits — a 10% increase over last year.

The police department budget, which covers some 130 officers, is $13.3 million, an 8% increase over last year, while the fire department budget is $7 million, a 9% increase.

In December, City Council approved $625,000 for police officer raises — increasing the starting salary from $36,300 to $40,500.

On the revenue side, the budget anticipates $5.4 million in hospitality tax receipts, a $222.000 increase over last year's budgeted amount.

Also, $17.69 million is budgeted for property tax revenues, a 6% increase over last year's budget of $17.31 million.

The new budget projects $7.2 million in business license fee receipts, a $200,000 increase over the 2020-21 projected budget; and $575,000 from building permits, a $25,000 increase over the 2020-21 projection.

Contact Bob Montgomery at bob.montgomery@shj.com

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