The Florida Times Union today released a database of 2008-2009 raises for Jacksonville City employees. It is quite revealing to say the least. The largest raise was for Manager of Accounting Services-Grants Devin Carter who received a whopping 87.16 percent raise – a $29,574 difference in salary from 2008 to 2009! I certainly know that I did not receive a double digit raise for 2009. I doubt that many Jacksonville taxpayers did too especially in this economy.
I accept that some of the salary increase may have been due to new bachelors degrees which led to promotions or something similar to this. Clearly, this could be a legitimate recognition of the improved skill set brought about through higher education. However, 586 employees out of 8,116 – about 7 percent of the city workforce – received raises of 10 percent or more. Clearly, this has to be explained before we taxpayers will accept a 12 percent tax increase
