Council waits on budget answer before taking up pay plans

Hearing a month ago that the City Council was about to give him a pay raise, one veteran employee said he wouldn’t count it until it shows up in his check.
“I’ve been down the disappearing money trail before,” he said.
While his pessimism might be uncalled for, he’s right to have not yet done the counting.
The council on Tuesday night tabled any pay discussion until it can find out where it stands under the law.
There’s no doubt where it stands with its bank account.
Auditor Steve Moosa told the council it is dipping into city reserves by about $230,000 fiscal year to cover expected expenses, expenses boosted by a round of add-ons at the July meeting when the budget was adopted.
Alderman at-large Jack Burson ask for the tabling because he wants to be sure the city is not outside the limits imposed on it by state law.
Moosa believes the city is okay.
When Burson asked him if the city is complying with the Budget Act when it knowingly is out of balance, Moosa said yes because the city is using both current revenue and available reserves.
Burson preferred to let City Attorney Jacque Pucheu give the council a formal opinion.
The pay plans that Moosa provided cost estimates for range from 3 percent for all employees to one that provides 70 cents an hour for most Police Department employees and $1.25 hourly for all other city employees.
Chief Goose Fontenot, facing the reality of never being fully staffed, proposes to hold staffing at current levels (17 persons below full staff) and pay his people more.
After money that is already in the budget is subtracted, net funding required for the pay plans ranges from $58,463 for the 3 percent across the board to $409,374 for the police revision-$1.25 for everyone else approach.
It’s not a question of whether money is available.
The questions are:
Can the city legally go further out of current-year balance?
If it can, does it want to use previous-year surplus to fund a salary expense that will recur annually?