County Looks To Cut Budgets, But Not Salaries

By Gordon HopkinsWhile Jefferson County is looking at cutting costs for its upcoming budgets, one place where cuts are off the table is salaries.An ongoing workforce shortage continues to plague both public and private industries across the country. Coupled with rising inflation, increasing salaries and benefits are the primary way to keep staff doing the jobs that need to be done.Jefferson County Commissioners discussed the matter with department heads at a meeting on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Commissioner Mark Schoenrock said, “It is the responsibility of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners to ensure that we have a trained and professional workforce. And we have to have a good workforce in order to provide a high level of service to Jefferson County residents.”“And we recognize that the cost of living has increased and in order to, number one, recruit, and, number two, retain a quality workforce, we have to have a competitive compensation package now, which consists of the salary and the benefits that our employees receive,” said Schoenrock. “On the other side of the coin, we have the responsibility to prudently manage the tax funds that are paid for by our citizens and we take that responsibility very seriously. It is a tight budget, but we do need to increase the wage structure for employees in order to accomplish that objective.”Commissioners opted to give a 50 cent an hour raise to the majority of employees, and 75 cents to those in a supervisory role.Sheriff Nick Georgi was at the meeting and noted, “The state just did a comparability study throughout the whole state. Specifically our jailers are about $6 behind on wages, and they’re not unionized.”The sheriff asked, “If I find money within my budget I can cut somewhere to increase wages for certain employees to get where they should be, are you leaving it open to the, to the department heads and elected officials to do to do that?”Commissioners agreed that they would allow departments heads to further increase salaries for staff if they can find the money in their budgets. Schoenrock said, “That is with the understanding that whatever increase above and beyond the Board of Commissioners has authorized, that elected official then would have to take a commensurate cut in their budget elsewhere to make the difference. But I do believe that we should allow each of our elected officials that latitude.”It was also pointed out in the meeting that union negotiations are coming up and would likely result in further salary increases. Jefferson County employees currently have three labor unions: for law enforcement, dispatchers and the Highway Department.Commissioner Michael Dux said, “Every department is going to probably have to have some cuts if we’re going to get salary increases in anything above what we were looking at.”Commissioners pointed out the county is butting up against the levy limit. Dux said, “I don’t know how we’re going to find the money, because we’re right to our levy limit. So with that being said, it’s going to be tough. Do I think that people deserve a raise? Absolutely. Cost of living is going up all the time.”Dux also noted, “We know health insurance is going to go up. We don’t know how much yet.”One possible approach is to reduce the number of staff. Schoenrock said, “We might be looking at some cuts with the number of people that are employed by the county. We might be looking at that. We just simply can’t afford to keep paying more and keep the same number of people.”

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