The city of Selma awarded its employees with a wonderful, $400,000 Christmas gift this week.

Every city employee received a one-time raise, ranging from $200 to $1,600, for the first time in more than seven years. The one-time raises came out of a half-cent sales tax that begin in April.

Just to put the numbers in perspective, a full-time employee, making minimum wage, earns 290 each week and slightly more than $15,000 annually. If said employee had been employed with the city of Selma for three or more years, the bonus equals about 10 percent of his or her annual pay.

We’re happy the city generated enough revenue to give each employee this gift of gratitude for the hours of sweat and sometimes back-breaking work, especially since the city pitched the sales tax as a way to give raises. It seems the city is fulfilling its promise to give employees extra money.

But an important question remains — how long until the city gives employees a permanent raise?

If the tax increase is permanent, there should be a way to at least give a portion of employees an increase on every future check. A few extra bucks during the holiday season is nice, but Christmas isn’t the only time that employees have to pay bills. There are 11 other months in the year. After all $15,000 is hardly enough to feed one person, let alone a family.

Perhaps if the city wasn’t using the half-cent sales tax as a slush fund, giving a permanent raise would be an easier task.

Two troubling transactions signal a problem with permanent salary increases.

In early November, the city approved a settlement over a monument to former Klu Klux Klan leader and confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Part of the settlement included a $50,000 to KTK Mining for stripping the company of its construction permit. The $50,000 came out of the half-cent sales tax fund.

The city is also planning to spend $36,000 on stun guns for police, in what seems like a knee-jerk reaction to an officer involved shooting on Griffin Avenue on Dec. 4.

Some council members argued stun guns are a less lethal way to stop a criminal. It could be, but an officer is going to protect himself regardless of whether he or she has a stun gun or not.

City employees are the most important part of Selma. Without employees, the services the city provides would not exist.

Giving a permanent raise could help retain employees and city officials should live up to their promise of giving employees a few extra bucks, permanently.