Mayor Kelly backs $1.99 millage recommendation to cover police and fire raises, urges CPI indexing

Mayor Tim Kelly told the Chattanooga City Council at a budget work session that the administration’s recommended certified rate is $1.99 per $100 of assessed value and said the increase would help cover police and fire pay requests and other rising costs. "It's not going to be crippling," Kelly said, adding the rate would amount to about $1.23 per day for the average resident.

The recommendation comes amid unprecedented inflation and rising city costs, the mayor and staff said. Kelly said the city has seen roughly $25 million in cost increases and a 26% jump in certain expense buckets compared with recent years, and he highlighted a large backlog in paving and deferred maintenance as evidence of the need for new revenue. He argued the administration should also pursue a separate ordinance to index the city budget to the Consumer Price Index so future budgets remain in "constant dollars." "We really need to pass an ordinance that will peg the budget to the consumer price index," Kelly said.

Council members across the table signaled agreement that…