Board talks bonuses, salaries
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 15, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners made only a few minor tweaks to the county's $148,292,780 general fund budget proposal Tuesday during a nearly four-hour budget workshop.
The meeting including an hour-long closed session called to discuss a possible industry. Another hour was spent just going through County Manager George Wood's budget message that summarizes the spending plan.
And most of that discussion was sparked by Chairman Joe Daughtery who said he had heard concerns about the county providing a $500 bonus to each full-time employee and possible 2 percent merit increases on top of recent salary adjustments.
But the board voted unanimously to keep both in the budget and to continue the county's efforts to address underpaid positions.
The board did make some changes in the bonuses. Instead of being paid in a lump sum, the $500 will be added to an employee's check and paid over a 12-month period.
A second workshop was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. today to look at funding for outside agencies such as Wayne Action Teams for Community Health (WATCH) and Literacy Connections. It was to be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
There are no fee increases in the proposed budget that reduces the tax rate from 66.50 to 66.35 cents per $100 of property value.
The tax rate reduction will cost the county about $118,000.
Commissioner Ray Mayo questioned the practicality of such a small decrease, suggesting instead a "revenue neutral" tax rate.
Mayo said he had received calls from people asking why the county couldn't use that money instead to fund their programs.
"I would say this, you are always going to have requests from nonprofits to pay more," Wood said.
"But won't it really send a better message if we just went ahead and kept the rate the same?" Mayo said. "In other words, adjust the budget where the rate is the same. When it is this close I just think it gives the wrong signal to some people.
"I mean what is $118,000?"
Daughtery said he disagreed and thought the cut sends the "right signal" that the county is working to reduce taxes even though it is a small amount.
Commissioner Ed Cromartie said he thinks it is a signal that the board respects the fact people are already paying and as such the county is going to give them a "little bit of a breather."
Cromartie said he would like for the outside agencies being funded by the county to look at the salaries they are paying that are "out of balance" with what is being paid around the county.
"I am speaking vaguely, but I have seen some sheets where there were real hefty salaries for certain categories of folk, and I know that other people are not making those equivalent kinds of dollars," he said.