At the recent council meeting councillors voted to raise councillor pay to the maximum allowed under the new council pay structure - which saw Wagga city council designated in the Regional Centre category of council.

Councillors will now make $25,310 a year, a 22 per cent increase, while the mayoral allowance will increase by 38 per cent from $45,140 to $62,510 a year.

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The vote carried six to one, with Councillor Mick Henderson voting against the increase as a matter of "principle".

With an impending rate increase, and the continual quest to raise more revenue, he questioned the logic of increased spending on councillor wages.

He also wondered whether the freshly minted councillors deserve a pay increase so soon after being elected.

"We've only been in, some of the new councillors, for less than six months, we've got to produce the goods first," he said.

"We, as a council, have got to set the example, we can't give ourselves a pay rise and expect the ratepayers to contribute more to the rate variation," he said.

Councillor Tim Koschel didn't wholly disagree with his council colleague, but said that the pay increase will help attract the best candidates to council, thus saving money in the long term.

The budget for councillor pay prior to the vote stood at $231,350, but with the increase that figure now stands at $320,782. Cr Koschel said that this figure was budgeted for two years ago, before council voted to postpone a pay increase due to the pandemic.

"The remuneration, even though you're looking at a 22 per cent pay increase, the percentage sounds huge, but physical dollars it's not. But those savings are going to come from the right people sitting on council making decisions," he said.

"I normally vote against pay increases for councillors, this is the first time I've ever supported it.

"Mick's points last night I agreed with ... but I'm looking towards the future, when I'm talking about the right people sitting around the table, it's not just the people who can afford it. We need a vast variety people form uni students to mothers to lots of different other people."

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