THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080484
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
City retirees will have to wait two more weeks before learning if the City Council will be willing and able to pay for their 3 percent benefits increase.
The council delayed a vote on the increase Wednesday, asking new City Manager Myles E. Standish to review whether the city can afford the increase for all retired city employees. The council will take up the issue Dec. 21.
The General Assembly passed a bill in July giving state retirees a 3 percent benefits increase. The legislature also called for a 3 percent raise for all city employees under the Virginia Retirement System. Rather than funding the increase, however, the Assembly gave cities the option of approving and paying for it.
Thus far, no other city in the region has tackled the issue.
Suffolk officials estimate that the raise would cost the city and School Board about $213,000 annually.
The 3 percent raise is in addition to the annual cost-of-living increase that all state retirees receive. It would become effective in July 1996.
Two Suffolk city councilmen would benefit from the increase. Newly elected Councilmen J. Samuel ``Sammy'' Carter and Thomas G. Underwood are retired city employees who had each earned more than $60,000 a year.
Debate at Wednesday's council meeting focused on the city's ability to absorb the cost of the increase in the middle of its budget cycle.
C. Lee Acors, the city's finance director, said the city could pay for the increase in a number of ways, including raising taxes. But until the city has a firmer grip on next year's budget, Mayor S. Chris Jones and others on the council said they would rather wait.
``This is not a tactic to stall,'' said Jones. ``But I think it's unfair to any council or body to ask us, in the middle of a budget cycle, to fund something.''
Underwood fought hard for the increase, saying that if council members do not approve it, they will help create a huge benefits gap between city retirees and state retirees, whose 3 percent increase is already paid for by the state.
``Rather than deny it,'' Standish told council, ``I would certainly encourage you to take a look at it.'' by CNB