Cities stop giving pay raises.

Unemployment, higher prices and an uncertain economic future have all of us keeping a watchful eye on our spending. Some are cutting back even more because many employers have stopped giving raises.

City workers on both sides of the state line in Texarkana and Bossier City will see no pay increase this year. Shreveport employees haven't had a raise in two years.

Nbc 6 news reporter Karen Hopkins found one leader taking a stand for these middle class families and even getting a little dirty in the process.

Mounds of trash! Otis Peoples and Kenneth Ferguson pick up it to support their families. They say the load is getting heavier. It’s the second year with no pay raise and rising costs are piling up. “Me and my wife put everything together. We can make it work for us," Ferguson says. “With the economy and shape it is in, it makes things tight." Peoples says.

So tight, many families are spending less. Less spending generates fewer sales tax dollars and a loss of revenue the city depends on. “Sales tax revenue is way down and that's where revenue comes from,” city council chairwoman Joyce Bowman says.
Unlike other Arklatex cities, Shreveport laid no one off. “I'm thankful I have a job,” Ferguson says.

If the economy picks up, these workers could get a raise. “If our sales tax revenue comes in looking better than it did, we'll be in a position to do that."
City council chairwoman Joyce Bowman put on a vest, rolled away bins and took a ride. “This has been a humbling experience for me to walk a mile in their shoes." She says we sometimes take for granted, the hard work of these city workers."

In April, council will take a look at the budget again. If sales tax revenue is high, Bowman says she'll fight to give workers a raise.