Mayor Shirley Franklin proposed a 2005 Tentative Budget for the City of Atlanta with a 4% raise for police and a 1% raise for all other city employees. The Atlanta City Council adopted an amended budget including a 4% across the board increase for all City employees. In response to the Council’s action, Mayor Franklin issued the following statement, “We should be as prudent and thrifty with the taxpayers’ money as we are with our own. I don’t know whether I will veto the amended budget or not. I certainly will consider it. It is not a question of whether city employees deserve a 4% raise. The issue is sound fiscal management. When I came into office, the City was almost bankrupt. I don’t want the City to face that situation again.”
The tentative budget adopted on Monday night after more than nine hours of discussion will be presented to the Council in February for a final vote.