BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) – The Bossier City Council will meet on Tuesday, November 19 to discuss the 2025 budget.

At the last council meeting, Councilor David Montgomery proposed an amendment providing a $500 raise for municipal employees. He also proposed a raise for police officers and firefighters. Councilor Chris Smith said those increases would most likely be a similar amount.

If these increases are approved, it would cost the city millions.

Montgomery says he proposed the raise because of surpluses and because employees deserve a raise.

In the days following the meeting, Smith said he wanted first responders to have a good quality of life with a raise that was also fiscally responsible.

“What we don’t want is to find ourselves in a situation where, in the years to come, we cannot afford to raise wages and where we will then be forced to either raise taxes or dismiss. We’re not going to do that, we don’t want to do that. We have to move forward and be smart from day one about how we’re going to afford it,” Smith said.

At the previous meeting, some community members spoke out against the potential increases.

“What concerns me about the way this played out at the last city council meeting is that they are just giving a flat rate raise to all city employees, that they are currently overpaid or underpaid,” David said. Crockett.

Another community member asked why the City conducted a salary study if they didn’t want to follow it.

Smith said he believes the increases will pass. The council will meet at 3 p.m.

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