Kaysen Proposing Raises For City Employees

Cheyenne Mayor Rick Kaysen is proposing employee pay raises of 2.25% in his budget proposals for fiscal year 2014.

The mayor says city employees have received only 2 raises in the last four years, and calls his proposed pay increases "modest". Kaysen also says he was growing increasingly concerned about losing valuable employees, and the city investment in their training, to higher paying jobs.

The mayor says an study he had conducted of employees who left for other jobs shows his concern was valid, with 73 percent of employees who left saying they did so to take a better paying job. The fiscal year 2014 budget, which must be approved by the city council before being finalized, takes effect on July 1, 2013.