Hillsboro city workers
to get 3% cost-of-living raise
Additional money earmarked for merit raises
Staff writer
City employees in Hillsboro will receive raises averaging an increase of $1,708 in 2026.
City administrator Matt Stiles proposed a 3% pay increase across the board and an amount equal to one-third of that for merit raises.
The 3% averages out to about 82 cents an hour and will start on Jan. 4.
The increase is the same amount city employees received in 2025. The merit raises will come in the middle of the year.
The national inflation rate for the 12 months ending in September was 3%, according to the Labor Department.
Council members were in full support of the raises.
“Council has done it in the past with us taking care of our employees,” Mayor Lou Thurston said.
When city employees go out in the middle of the night in zero degree weather or stand in water to protect the public this 3% is well deserved, not mentioning that some of that work would be paid at over these rates, he said.
Council member Ronald Wilkins voted in favor of both raises.
“It shows that we support them,” he said. “I appreciate that the city budgeted for this. We make an effort to tell them that we do value them.”
Overall, the increased wages will cost the city $49,847, the equivalent of roughly two mills of property taxes.
In other business Leslie Atherton, director of member services with KPP Energy winning the Public Power Week competition for the second consecutive year and the third time out of four years.
The city received a $500 check.
“We have a tremendous team,” Stiles said. “Everyone takes chunk of Public Power Week.”
Council members also approved the purchase of a windscreen with a standard use agreement with the Recreation Commission, school district and possibly Tabor College, who has not signed the agreement yet.
The city would pay 40% of the $26,608 overall cost.
Waiting to see whether Tabor College was going to pay 20% is not practical because tennis season is around the corner, Stiles said.
“Additionally, Tabor has limited negotiating leverage as they do not have adequate facilities to meet their program needs,” Stiles wrote in his staff report.