Funny how a measly $5000 for five years can be “buried” and be considered not “much money” in a budget, be considered not “much money” for something like a turf football field when our city employees are having to pay more for insurance.
Oh, wait a minute, they got a 5.5 percent raise. Which, if a man is making $15 an hour and he gets his raise, he is going to be making $15.83 and hour. Well, that is an increase of a whopping $33.20 a week. After taxes he will probably get a grand total of $20 a week if he’s lucky. What if he makes $20 an hour? His raise comes out to be about $1.10 an hour for a $44 increase in his weekly wages. It just don’t add up. I wonder what else is “buried” in the budget that could be used to lower the insurance premiums for our city employees? I totally agree with council members Breland and Bumpers. Our priorities for using taxpayer money is way out of whack and really doesn’t appear to be used in a responsible manner.

By Sam Jopes
Picayune