The commissioners recently held hearings with 25 office holders, department heads and independent boards and collectively they want to spend $126.4 million out of the general fund and a total of $501 million for all funds. The general fund — that finances most county operations — will be structurally balanced with revenues expected to total $128.7 million.
The budget requests are around 4% above the budget for this year and most — 14 of the 23 general fund spending plans — of the individual budgets are in the 6% range or less. The Area Courts have the highest hike at 36% — their general fund personnel budget jumped $380,376 to $1.4 million — and they say a couple things came into play.
Court Administrator Jeannette Bullard told the commissioners they had to move four positions this year and an additional five next year from their special funds to the general fund and they also had to boost salaries to retain staff.
“We’re requesting a little bit more than usual,” she said. “Starting in April we were having trouble retaining staff so we worked together and came up with a solution to offer more money for starting pay and then we needed to adjust salaries going on up the scale. It has helped us immensely with job retention.”
This isn’t a new tactic to retain employees, Clerk of Courts Mary Swain and Probate Court Judge John Holcomb gave raises a couple years ago in an effort to stop job hopping within the county court system and beyond. County Administrator Judi Boyko asked the judges during their respective budget hearings whether they’d be willing to revisit trying to equalize starting pay within the county judicial system, saying “it appears that maybe there’s some stealing from one court to another court because they’re paying a quarter more or 50 cents more.”
Holcomb summed up the general response from the judges, “we’re not just willing to do it, we would appreciate the opportunity.”
Elsewhere in the county, Job and Family Services always has problems holding onto workers, but that is due to the very difficult nature of their work. During the budget hearing for Children Services, Child Support Enforcement and public assistance Finance Director Barb Fabelo noted 38 of 129 positions were vacant or 29% and in Children Services the vacancy rate was 24% with 40 of 162 jobs vacant.
JFS is funded through the BCCS levy, federal and state funds, so they won’t need to burden the general fund to recruit staff.
The biggest expense for the county is payroll and the commissioners have made a concerted effort — there was a time when double-digit increases and multiple raises a year were the norm — through the years to rein in that expense. The county was facing financial issues during the recession until officials made some changes.
The county’s total payroll in 2008 was $136.6 million for 2,596 full-time workers, by 2010 the paychecks totaled $126 million for 2,289 employees. The auditor’s office told the Journal-News last year there were 1,932 full-time county employees who were paid $151.9 million in salary and benefits the full-time employee tally as of now is roughly 1,679.
The commissioners and other office holders usually give annual raises — 3% was the recommended merit increase for next year — but the commissioners approved a second pay bump totaling around $220,000 for 71 non-union employees under the commissioners’ direct control two years ago, based on a market update by consultant Clemans Nelson.
Boyko said they examine the market every three years and the triennial update will likely impact the budget next year.
“The entire nation is experiencing similar circumstances and Butler County is not immune to domestic conditions regarding consequences of inflation on the economy and wages,” she said. “The Board of Commissioners’ objective is to provide favorable wages to the hard working county employees that are sustainable, affordable, and respectful of taxpayers money.”
The county is also renegotiating union contracts with seven of the 10 unions next year so that adds an element of the unknown into the overall spending plan. Sheriff’s Finance Director Vickie Barger estimated it could cost “$100,000-plus dollars” more for every percent negotiated above the 3% she already budgeted in their $49 million general fund budget.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News they are living in the “new normal” where everything is more expensive and they need to offer competitive wages, but no one should never lose sight of the fact they are public servants.
“If you keep saying I can’t hire people or I can’t keep people because we’re not paying them enough, you’re gonna quickly go broke,” Dixon said and later added. “The public sector historically has not been a competitive pay environment as it has in the private sector because we don’t sell anything, we don’t manufacture anything, we can’t mark it up and pass it on. A lot of people who pay our taxes are on fixed incomes.”
The county expects to have available resources totaling $266.2 million in the general fund — according to the tax budget — but Boyko is recommending the commissioners keep nearly $90 million — about nine months worth of operating expenses — in reserve as a precaution.
The requested increases for personnel costs — including salary and benefits — out of the general fund total $4.2 million.
The county finance department keeps track of spending monthly and the dashboard for September shows the county has collected $6 million more in general fund revenues — a 5.7% hike — compared to last year and expenses are up 24.3% or $20 million.
None of the commissioners were surprised by the funding requests this year and Commissioner T.C. Rogers told the Journal-News everyone is “trying to make an effort to hold the increases down as much as possible” but they know they need to “attract new workers because things are changing and there are going to be retirements looming within the next three or four years.”
The commissioners will approve the final budget in December.
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