Officials kill county step pay raises in 3-2 split
In a surprise move last night commissioners split in deciding to do away with automatic step pay increases for county employees and cut funding for two vacant positions.
That action came after officials reconvened a meeting they had recessed on Monday (June 7).
It’s estimated that eliminating this year’s step raises for some 400 employees as well as the vacant positions will save Jackson County approximately $365,228.
Commissioner Tom Massie proposed the measure, and Commissioners William Shelton and Mark Jones backed his recommendation.
Taking the opposite side were Chairman Brian McMahan and Commissioner Joe Cowan. All five expressed reservations before the decision was made to eliminate pay raises, which had not been discussed during several past budget-related sessions.
In addition to saving some $294,000 in step pay increases for county employees, Massie’s proposal will also eliminate two vacant positions – a GIS map specialist ($34,440) and an administrative support job ($31,238). It also calls for existing housekeepers to take up the slack when the new library opens (saving $5,550) rather than creating a housekeeping slot.
Tuesday’s action comes on the heels of a June 7 public hearing on the budget during which several organizations approached county officials and told them of their needs for the upcoming 2010-11 fiscal year.
A step increase is 2 percent of an employee’s salary, which means that someone making $40,000 per year would see an additional $800 after the raise.
The additional revenue the county will realize as a result of eliminating step raises and the two positions from the budget will go to many of those who made requests the previous evening and will be allocated as follows: $9,000 to the Family Resource Center; $1,000 to the county animal shelter’s spay/neuter line item; an additional $5,000 to the Community Table, $20,384 for the Jackson County Library’s collection purchases for the new library under construction atop Courthouse Hill; and $10,000 for operating expenses at the Cashiers Library. In addition, the savings that result from Massie’s proposal will allow an additional $50,000 to be budgeted to contingency funds and more than $200,000 to be designated for future capital reserve allocations.
Speaking in favor of his proposal, Massie told leaders he didn’t recall specifically authorizing step increases this year to begin with.
“This is the second year state employees will not see any increase or cost-of-living adjustments,” Massie said, adding that he didn’t believe Sylva’s town employees or the school system were seeing any raises either. He said he wasn’t against the step system, but “these are unusual times, and everybody will stay in place,” and that the move does not penalize any employee. Massie said he is not optimistic that things will “turn around in a hurry,” and thinks it prudent we put “everybody on hold.”
McMahan, who never wavered in his opposition to the plan to cut employee step raises, said such increases have been standard in past years. The system is fair, unlike other systems in which politics and connections play a role in raises, he said.
Doing away with increases that many employees depend and rely upon, while asking them to do more work, be under more stress and pay more for health insurance is unreasonable, McMahan said.
“I cannot support eliminating the step increase especially when employees are being asked to take a cut in health care benefits,” adding that they likely would’ve used the raise to pay for increased health insurance costs, McMahan said.
He later commented that if the “drastic measure” of eliminating step increases had to be done to ensure commissioners don’t raise taxes, it would be different.
Shelton, in supporting the proposal, offered a different view.
“I feel like we have been good to county employees,” Shelton said. “It’s very hard to even consider not doing step increases, but these aren’t normal times. I would support treading water for a year and putting (step raises) back in (the budget) as soon as possible.”
Cowan, who sided with McMahan on the cost-cutting proposal, said he’s heard from several individuals who are in dire straits and that people depend on the step raises. He also said it should’ve been brought up earlier due to the shock factor it will cause among county employees. It’s his view that the county has a healthy fund balance and officials could dip into it once if necessary, he said.
Speaking in favor of eliminating the increases, Jones said funds from the realized savings would go to benefit a large portion of the county’s 39,000 population and pointing to the reallocated funds that would go to the Family Resource Center and Community Table.
That’s the 39,000 people Massie said he was thinking of, adding that he’s agonized over two issues since he’s been a commissioner and this is one of them. The 400 county employees are only a small subset of the overall county population, and he has to consider the best interests of the whole population first.
“I made it a point through my three-and-a-half years not to favor special interests over the good of the general population,” Massie said.
