In the face of federal tax changes, council will be discussing a change to its pay.
Elected civic politicians used to be able to receive one-third of their pay tax free in lieu of charging for expenses. As of Jan, 1, 2019, that will no longer be the case.
“This is a discussion that we’ll have to have amongst ourselves: whether we will, at the end of the day, take home less money than we did in 2018 or if we’ll adjust the pay scale to compensate for that so we end up making the same in 2019 as we did in 2018,” Muench said after the Nov. 26 council meeting.
According to the city’s 2017 audit, in that year, the mayor was paid $24,464.88, while councillors were paid $6,475.92.
Muench said people aren’t running for council to get rich.
“We all have regular jobs, we all do this on our own time afterwards, so the pay scale is there to compensate for having to give up your evenings and weekends, which it mostly is, doing community service for your [city].”
Only council has the authority to change its pay. In a normal situation, an advisory committee would give recommendations to council as to how they should change their pay before the deed is done.
The discussion will be held at the next council meeting Dec. 10.
