HANCEVILLE — With an improved economy and the increase in sales tax revenues that come along with it, Hanceville’s municipal budget for the 2019 fiscal year will see a significant bump over the 2018 version it replaces — and some of the extra money will go toward a pay raise for city employees.

The Hanceville city council passed a $4,178,267.50 budget for 2019 at its regular meeting Thursday, reflecting a projected net income of $123,842.50 against a projected $4,054,425.00 in expenses.

As they did a year ago, city employees will receive a 5 percent across-the-board pay increase incorporated into the city’s spending plans. Compared with last year’s $3,784,587.49 budget, this year’s higher revenues left some extra room for the measure, which mayor Kenneth Nail said makes sense during an economically stable time.

“Things are good right now, so we wanted to get this pay increase done while we were in a position to do it,” he said, “because, when times are tough, there may not be any money in our budget for raises.

“Our employees have had to make do in some of those down times, in the past, without a single penny in pay increases. Honestly, I still feel like we’re a little behind where we’d like to be, compared to some other cities that we studied. But it’s nice that we were able to go ahead and get it done this year.”

While all city departments saw incremental increases in their operating budgets, thanks to the additional revenues, no single department or project received a disproportionate jump in funding for 2019.

Aside from the citywide pay raise, other spending highlights for the coming year involve some modest capital improvements, including the first phase of a plan to upgrade the Hanceville Civic Center. The city also plans to install security cameras at C.W. Day Park, as well as double the reimbursement it pays to volunteer fire fighters for non-medical call responses from $10 to $20 per call.