Budget Discussion

[meckconnect]

We're opening discussion of the current Mecklenburg County budget (Fiscal Year 2010), and next year's budget, which begins July 1, 2010.

Your questions and comments are welcome.

[Abby Normal]

Revoke, return all merit raises for past 2 years.

Revoke, return all pay raises for past 2 years.

Halt pay raises and merit based pay raises.

Trim 5-10 hours off an employees 40 hours per week.

Make full time be 30-35 hours a week and not 40.

Make all positions part-time.

Three part-time non-benefited employees are cheaper that one full-time employee and part-timers work harder.

[Bill Carroll]

May 19, 2010 9:17:16 GMT -5 @Abby Normal said:

Revoke, return all merit raises for past 2 years.

Revoke, return all pay raises for past 2 years.

Halt pay raises and merit based pay raises.

Trim 5-10 hours off an employees 40 hours per week.

Make full time be 30-35 hours a week and not 40.

Make all positions part-time.

Three part-time non-benefited employees are cheaper that one full-time employee and part-timers work harder.

Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll try to take them one at a time.

I’m not aware of any law (local, state or federal) that allows for any employee, government or otherwise, to “return” pay that they earned.

County employees are faced with increasing health insurance costs, increasing costs of living, and, for the second consecutive year, no merit increases (pay increases based on good performance) are planned. Health insurance costs to employees are also slated to increase again, and the county has suspended its contribution to employee 401(k) plans indefinitely. County salaries are determined by experience, expertise, performance and comparisons against salaries provided for similar jobs in the market. For all the information on how salaries are determined, check out meckconnect.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/how-mecklenburg-county-salaries-are-determined/.

With the state of the economy, demand for many of our services has never been higher. In many areas of county government, we have an increasing 24-hour demand for services mandated by state law. For instance, as of June 2009, one in five county residents received some form of public assistance – a 19-percent increase over the previous year.

If the recommended budget is approved by the Board of Commissioners next month, there will be hundreds fewer employees to address those needs – but we’re going to have to find a way to keep as many of our services as consistent as possible. Taking highly skilled employees and making them all part-time (and dropping their benefits) would not only require that more be hired to meet demand, but drastically decrease the appeal of the job itself and the labor pool it draws from.

--Bill Carroll, Public Information Officer

[Matthew Vincent]

This is what I think -- www.minimumfailure.com/archives/2354