Contracts granting raises of 3 percent this year and 2.5 percent increases over the next two years were signed this week with union members working for the city of Mankato, reports the Mankato Free Press.

The city has 248 full-time employees.

“It’s just not a great time to be asking for a raise,” said Dan Padilla, a Mankato police officer and president of the local patrol officers union. “You gotta take what you can get.”

It's unclear, though, the paper says, what would happen if the state imposes a wage freeze on local government employees, one of the possible fixes proposed as a way to solve the state budget crisis.