Council agrees to mayor’s pay hike

The mayor will get a raise in La Crosse.  Depending on a decision by the current mayor.  The city council on Thursday voted to approve a ten percent hike in the mayor’s salary to $85 thousand a year.  

 

But you’re getting plenty for that, says chief proponent of the raise, council member Jai Johnson, including someone who manages a $72 million operational budget, $7 million of capital improvement projects, 17 department heads and hundreds of employees.  She says the job is the most important.  More important, she says, than the county administrator or the La Crosse school superintendent, both of which make way more money than the mayor of the city of La Crosse.  

 

Mayor Tim Kabat has suggested he may veto the raise.  It would be the first veto since he took office.