Collegiate Times

For the first time in six years, the members of the Blacksburg Town Council will be given an increase in salary. The town said the increase will be comparable to inflation and the current cost of living.

The annual salary of mayor will rise from $9,000 to $10,200. The annual salary for each town council member will increase by $1,200, raising their annual income to $8,400. The new salary will come into effect on July 1, 2006.

This increase will set a precedent for coming years, ensuring that council members will receive a salary equivalent to the rising cost of living in Blacksburg.

?What we're doing is tying the increases to the cost of living that we're giving to all other town employees. We can only raise the pay every two years, so we can't do it every year because of state law. But this current raise will cover from whatever the last increase was until now,? said Paul Lancaster, a Blacksburg town council member.

An increase in the Town Council salary will be considered after every election. This new standard will allow the members' salaries to remain updated with Blacksburg's living costs.

?But from now on, every two years, whenever there is an election, we'll consider doing a cost of living increase to continue to manage the increases of the rest of the staff is getting. We haven't done it in awhile, and now we're setting the procedures so we don't have those large increases,? Lancaster said.

Ron Rordam, vice mayor of Blacksburg, said the town manager allocated the cost of living from the last increase to today's current cost of living to determine the appropriate salary increase.

In Rordam's view, the new salary does not compensate the council members for their time - but raising the salary too high would take away the positions' community service orientation.

?If you broke it down a per hour basis, I don't think it would breech minimum wage. You don't want to raise the salary too high because it would be more of a job than community involvement, and this is just a compensation for that,? Rordam said.

Steve Ross, the deputy manager of Blacksburg, said the Town Council adopts a new budget every year that goes through a public hearing process.

?It's a new budget each year and the public has the opportunity to come out and voice their opinion on the budget. The staff was recognizing that the salaries were not keeping up with the salaries of other elected officials in the area. They haven't increased in a number of years, and the council does spend a good time working on town business and doing things for the town. The salary is to recognize the time they put into these jobs,? Ross said.

Town Council members had to vote for an increase apart from other municipal employees.

?By state law, we can't just put ourselves in a town pool. In the current budget, we have a cost of living increase for the other town employees, but this is something we had to do separately because of state laws,? Lancaster said.

In the end, Rordam believes that the increase only represents a logical rise to counter inflationary concerns.

?I think it's appropriate. It's not something we've pulled out of a hat. We've simply kept up with inflation. I think that it's fair. We're just trying to keep up with cost of living,? Rordam said.