Some Butler County officials plan to give more than 2 percent raises
Commissioners made the request, in part, because they county is staring at a 12.4 percent health insurance cost increase (about
While a few of the county's elected office holders said they would try to tow the line by keeping raises at 2 percent, several others said that wouldn't be possible and still hang onto their talented, and in some cases, underpaid employees.
Prosecutor
The prosecutor wouldn't say how much he plans to ask for, but indicated it won't be 2 percent.
"I'm going to be presenting an argument on what my staff should have," Gmoser said.
"It's our budget, we don't fall under the county commissioners for these items," she said. "That's why we're going with my recommendation."
Treasurer
"Compared to the prosecutor, he loses a lot of good people to the private sector," she said. "I do believe our office staff is fairly paid, and we do try to get them increases anytime we can."
Because of recently settled union contracts, some office holders said pay increases cannot be capped at 2 percent. For example, Children Services case workers are scheduled to get a 2-percent pay increase next year and another 2 percent pool of money is set aside for merit increases.
The
Chief
"The commissioners are not blind," Dwyer said. "When they give you direction, they often -- if you have reasoning that may affect that -- are pretty receptive to that," he said. "Like for instance, I may not be able to hold this person to 2 percent because the subordinate they supervise got four. I think that's a prevailing argument. They work with us pretty well to hold the line, but they are also reasonable under the circumstances."
Engineer
"We're in negotiations now and that two percent fits with what we're doing," Wilkens said. "I don't see that much of a problem in our regard. That isn't that big of a deal."
Clerk of Courts Mary Swain's office is also in negotiations with the union in her title division, but she has proposed a 3.75 percent "bucket" of money for merit raises for her legal staff. Given the fact that employees have had to absorb some of the insurance rate hikes, she said a raise is something of a misnomer for some county employees.
"The last three years the insurance rates have gone up, so while the raises we've given out for the past couple years have been pretty minimal and the increase they are paying for their insurance, I don't know if they are breaking even," she said. "It is difficult."
County Auditor
"In the private sector, we were focusing on total costs and always looking for ways to get our total cost down," he said. "At some point, you hit the bottom on what's the lowest level of staff members you can operate an office on. But as we continue to add technology, we are seeing the benefits of that technology in the reduction in people."
Reynolds didn't say he wouldn't be giving raises, he just isn't sharing what those percentages might be. He said labor costs when he took office in 2007 were
Recorder
"In order for me to keep good, quality people, I may have to give a three percent raise this year," Crank said. "I don't know if I'll be able to stick to a strict two percent. I will make an effort to do that, but I'm not going to say that's going to be completely possible."
County officials have been touting the county's much improved financial footing and have credited the other office holders with helping make that possible. The county administrator said while it's true things are looking up, county government still has to be conservative.
"The labor cost for government is by far the dominant cost when you roll in all the compensation, health insurance and retirement, so that's an area where there might be some short-term improvement in revenue stream, but there's no guarantee that improvement is going to stay with us," Young said.
"When you have base pay increases, those increases go on forever. That's why you've got to be very cognizant long-term what you expect your growth and revenue to be, so you keep your labor costs in check and in tune with your revenue growth in the long run."
Commissioner
"We've worked with all the office holders previously to get us out of the financial mess we were in," Dixon said. "I have no reason to believe that we will not be able to work through this year's budget. We've got a lot of things to take into consideration, and they always listen, and we'll listen on our side. That's why we have the budget hearings."
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