WEST POINT — The West Point Board of Selectmen is taking a self-administered pay cut this week.
At Monday’s budget hearing, the board voted 4-1 to lower their salaries from $18,000 a year to $14,500.
“It’s been under consideration and study for a little while now,” Mayor Robbie Robinson told The Dispatch this morning.
Robinson said the city primarily based its decision on a study from the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University, which analyzed pay of elected officials in Mississippi cities. The study — the Municipal Salary and Benefits Survey — is presented to the Mississippi Municipal League each year.
Robinson said the selectman compared their salaries to similar cities throughout the state and other cities in the Golden Triangle and decided to lower their pay.
“We have a good board,” Robinson said. “They’re here to be public servants and they wanted to be in-line with similar governments.”
The new salaries kicked into effect Wednesday at the beginning of the city’s fiscal year.
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