I for one think a raise for the lower end employees would be defensible and most people would at least understand that. Especially if it were tied to a campaign to encourage spending that money locally. But if that was the plan, why didn't they just say that? The whole thing smells IMHO.
I completely agree. However, I have a feeling that the overage is basically a contingency amount. Why they wouldn't just add a line item to the budget is beyond me since that money could very easily be rolled to the next year. As it stands they are asking for a huge un-budgeted lump sum of money.