The Warren County Commission approved a $26.4 million budget last week, including 3-percent raises for all county employees and elected officials.
The budget is about $4.9 million more than last …
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The Warren County Commission approved a $26.4 million budget last week, including 3-percent raises for all county employees and elected officials.
The budget is about $4.9 million more than last year’s appropriations. That’s partly due to the raises, but is also because of $2.6 million in federal CARES Act funding the county will disburse this year, along with a quirk of the calendar squeezing one extra pay period into this year.
The county described its raises for employees as cost of living adjustments.
Presiding Commissioner Joe Gildehaus said some employees, particularly in the health department and road department, received slightly higher raises than the base 3-percent.
“Which was well deserved. Keeping employees has become a challenge, and trying to get employees has become even more of a challenge,” Gildehaus said, adding that COVID and medical issues have only increased that pressure.
“Several times throughout the year (the road department had) three or four people for the whole county,” he commented.
Gildehaus said the cost of workers compensation and general liability insurance also increased this year, while the cost of medical benefits stayed relatively flat.
Because of the raises, the salary budget for members of the Warren County Commission has increased by $3,000, or an average of $1,000 per commissioner. The total budget is about $113,000, divided among the three commissioners.
The flat salary for most other elected officials in the county was raised from $54,450 to just over $56,000. The county withheld pay raises for elected officials last year.
Raises for sheriff’s department employees, including at the county jail, were calculated independently from the other raises and are funded by the Proposition P sales tax approved by voters in 2018, county officials said. Sheriff’s employee raises are at least 3 percent, the county said.
On top of the raises, the county’s payroll schedule lined up to exactly the right day this year to include an extra pay period, which is four weeks of pay, Gildehaus said. County employees are paid every 28 days, which normally means 13 pay periods in the year. But this year the calendar works out to require a 14th pay day on the very last day of December.
County resident Wanda Thomas, who attended a Jan. 26 county budget hearing, criticized the county’s description of 3-percent salary raises as “cost of living adjustments” (COLA). She said the nationally recognized cost of living adjustment last year was 1.3 percent.
“If you don’t use the exact COLA, (then) when elected officials get 3 percent, you’re giving yourself a 1.7-percent raise that you should not get until the next term,” Thomas said. “I’m not opposed to giving a raise, I just think it should be legally transparent to the public.”
Gildehaus replied that the 3 percent raise for elected officials was balanced against not giving any raises to them last year.
Revenue for the county’s law enforcement fund is anticipated to be $5.5 million, according to a budget summary. That includes a combined $4.4 million from the base law enforcement sales tax and Prop P sales tax, and $425,000 for state and federal jail reimbursements. The county commission will also provide an additional $450,000 in general funding, keeping a commitment the commission made when Prop P was passed in 2018.
In the expense column, the county has $3.6 million budgeted for payroll, equipment and operations for the road patrol, and $2.5 million for paryoll and operation of the county jail.
The county’s road fund will receive about $4.1 million in revenue, mostly from taxes and state funding. The county has appropriated $4.3 million for daily operations, equipment purchases, and major projects.
Projects planned for this year include the start of engineering for rehabilitation or replacement of a bridge on Massas Creek, along with new paving on Paul Road, Prairie Road and Tuque Creek Road, commissioners said.
The county’s capital improvement fund will take in $945,000 from taxes and other revenue sources, to be combined with $994,000 already in the bank.
Expenses are budgeted at $1.9 million, including for new jail equipment, payment on the county’s debt for major renovations at the jail, and improvements at the county recycling center, among other purchases.
The county has thus far paid down over $300,000 of its debt for 2018 renovations to expand housing at the jail. The county currently owes $3.26 million for the project.
Meanwhile, the county has paid off its debt on the county fitness center that was purchased and renovated in 2017. The building was paid for by grant funding, former Health Administrator Ruth Walters said, with $95,000 paid toward the building last year.
