Starkville budgets $442,276 for raises and approves four new police positions
STARKVILLE - Starkville aldermen set aside $442,276 for general-fund employee raises in fiscal year 2027 and approved four new police department positions at a special call budget meeting on Aug. 26.
The Starkville Board of Aldermen budgeted $442,276 for general-fund employee raises in fiscal year 2027 and approved four new positions in the police department at a special call budget meeting on Aug. 26. Most of the raise money is directed to police and fire personnel.
Alderman Sistrunk, identified in the meeting record as chair of the budget committee, told the board the raises followed a salary compression study and were needed to keep pay equitable across departments. “If we don’t do raises in the general fund, it would not be appropriate to do raises in other departments. So this would allow everybody in the general fund to have a raise,” Sistrunk said.
The adjustments are expected to affect roughly 225 general-fund employees and would take effect with the first payroll after October 1. The raises are the largest new expenditure item in the fiscal year 2027 budget, which is funded by the 34-mill property tax rate the board recently adopted.
Salary compression studies are used by cities to address pay gaps between newer and longer-tenured employees, particularly in public safety departments. The Starkville review was carried out by an outside consultant.
At the same meeting, the city’s police chief — not named in the meeting record — asked the board to fund a new sergeant position, an additional patrol officer and a part-time parking-enforcement position, and to move a code-enforcement officer to a higher pay tier. The board approved all four.
The chief told the board the department is working to build its sworn force toward 78 officers, and measured that target against another agency’s headcount. “I will use our university counterpart to North Mississippi — they’re at 109 officers,” the chief said. “And I’m trying to ask for 78.”
The request was presented in terms of that comparison. Meeting records do not show call-volume, response-time or caseload figures put before the board in support of the four positions.