Special meeting called to hammer out Birmingham budget

A specially called Birmingham City Council meeting will bring together Mayor William Bell and key council members will meet this afternoon at city hall. Their goal is to hammer out a budget compromise that was supposed to be in place more than a month ago.

Mayor Bell's budget plan failed in a vote of the full council last Tuesday. At issue is some $4-million in cuts the council wants to make to Bell's plan. The savings would be used to pay for a bigger pay raise for city employees than what the mayor proposed and fund some nonprofit agencies.

Mayor Bell says those cuts would hurt the new crossplex and economic development.

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