TIFTON — The Tifton city council approved a pay incentive to support city employees struggling with inflation and rising costs during their Nov. 18 meeting.

This is the second such incentive the city has provided to support city employees negatively impacted financially by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the rising inflation that occurred following the event.

A similar program was instated last year, providing those employees with stipends of amounts based on the number of years they had worked for the City of Tifton.

Larry Lawrence, acting city manager and chief financial officer, explained at their previous meeting that the incentive would be the last such provided by the city, as the ARPA funds used to provide for the program would need to be expended by the end of the year.