Thursday the Mobile City Council voted down Mayor Sam Jones' proposed one cent tax increase.
The mayor says now that a tax hike is a no go, layoffs and cuts to city to city services will be necessary. However, he holding out hope the City Council will change its mind or come up with other solutions.
Mayor Jones says the city has made several cuts in the budget without losing employees.
He says if the city is forced to do that, it will have a ripple effect for hundreds of families, the economy, and the quality of life for several programs the city funds.
The Mayor told News 5 that since the city council did not like the three options he had to offer to keep from laying off city workers, he is open to other ideas.
"I also welcome anyone on the council who has a better proposal or has a better way to do this to put it on the table and I will be happy to support it. If it actually solves the goal of maintaining our level of services, not adversely affects our employees, because we can't maintain the level of services without those employees and that is something we have the authority to do. If we can put something like that on the table, I'd be very happy to see it," said Mobile Mayor Sam Jones.
The city council's last meeting of the month is on April 27th.
The Mayor is hoping that members will either bring up the three options he has already provided or come up with some of their own.
He says something has to be done by May 1st.
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