The Selma City Council will vote Tuesday on a $17.4 million budget that includes a 10 percent raise for first responders.

If the raise is approved for the fire and police departments, it’ll cost the city approximately $528,000.

The plan is for the council to pay for the increase by refinancing a 2011 pension warrant, which would be a one-time savings of $600,000.

That means one year of the raises will be taken care of, but what happens in 2017? How does the city find $528,000 in the budget to pay for the public safety raises then?

City treasurer Ronita Wade issued a memo to council members Wednesday advising against the raises, calling them “fiscally irresponsible.”

Wade wants the city to build a reserve fund and also wants to make sure any raise is sustainable. We applaud Wade for taking her stance perhaps because nobody in the city knows the city’s finances better than she does.  We also know how important it is that the city finds a way to make these raises happen for our police officers, who are severely underpaid.

It won’t be easy, but the city has an entire year to find a way to afford these well-deserved raises next year.