Members of the next Huntsville council are getting a raise. Yesterday Huntsville council debated the salary increases. Originally the motion put forward was to see councillors and the deputy mayor get $1,000 more each year during their four-year term, while the mayor would have seen a $6,000 increase each year. However, enough of the current councillors believed it was too much and voted down the motion.
What was approved was a $500 per year increase for councillors and the deputy mayor and a $3,000 increase for the mayor instead. Councillors currently make about $19,000. With the new $500 raise per year, their salaries would increase to about $21,000 by 2018. The salary of the new deputy mayor will move from $23,000 to $25,000 and the next mayor’s salary will go up to $46,000 by 2018.