The Cheyenne City Council on Monday approved a $49 million budget for Fiscal Year 2017.

A handful of amendments were made to the budget, most notably one that took $312,415 out of general reserves to fund a 2.5 percent pay increase for the city's 375 non-uniformed employees.

"Morale is low in the city," said Jason Sanchez, President of the Cheyenne Public Employees Association, who argued that non-uniformed employees, just like uniformed employees on the fire and police departments, perform dangerous jobs and deserved a 2.5 percent raise.

"Overall I am satisfied with it," said Mayor Rick Kaysen. "I do not think a budget should be balanced on reserves, but I respect the thoughts of the council members."

The council also approved adding $250,000 to the Cheyenne Downtown Development Authority's budget, as well as removing $100,000 from reserves for the City Engineer's office to "spot patch" potholes.

"Is this going to get us real close to being caught up with them (potholes)," Councilman Mike Luna asked Public Works Director Vicki Nemecek.

"Not at all," said Nemecek. "It will honestly be a drop in the bucket, but if you give me a dollar I'll take it as far as I can and $100,000 I will take as far as I can, but it is not going to really affect the pothole situation in the City of Cheyenne."

The budget goes into effect on July 1, 2016.

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