Arkansas Blog: Give them the money

Members of the Pulaski County Quorum Court's Ways and Means Committee voted unanimously today to give themselves -- and all other county employees -- a 4 percent pay bonus. It will go to a full Quorum Court vote Oct. 27. Sometime after, these same part-time elected officials will consider whether to give themselves -- and other county employees -- a 5 percent pay raise to start the new year. If they take both, you're talking $2.5 million in taxpayer money and a total of 17 percent in pay boosts over a two-year period for the members of the Quorum Court and most county employees.

The hard times and decreased tax revenues that are plaguing businesses public and private are of no apparent concern to the Quorum Court, which wants its money. Sometime later they'll worry about zoning officials and enough jailers to staff a jail sufficient to keep crooks off the streets. Said JP Phil Stowers, "The taxpayers of Pulaski County need to realize what's going on. I am hoping that mayors, police chiefs, and circuit and district court judges in Pulaski county will stand with me. The way it looks at this point, myself and Doug Reed will probably be the only no votes and the only ones to vote to exclude the QC members."

I've written a column about this for this week. It's on the jump. I don't expect it to accomplish much with the JPs.

Pulaski gold rush

The Pulaski County Quorum Court is weighing up to 9 percent in pay increases for themselves and the other 1,200 or so county employees.

The timing isn’t good. Sales tax revenues are down and property values are stagnant. Most businesses and governments are cutting jobs and pay.

And, still, the Quorum Court is considering a 4 percent bonus for itself and other employees now and then a pay raise of up to 5 percent for itself and others at the first of next year. Total cost could be $2.5 million.

This is on the heels of an 8 percent pay boost for county employees in 2008 – the sum of a 5 percent pay raise and a 3 percent bonus. Give them 4 percent this year and 5 percent to start 2010 and you’re looking at 17 percent in pay enhancements over a 24-month period.

The argument is that county employees suffered through some lean years. They got a 4 percent raise in 2005, nothing in 2006, 3 percent in 2007 and 8 percent in 2008. County employees do enjoy good benefits – 12 days of paid sick leave every year, 10 days of paid vacation after six months on the job, 11 paid holidays and FREE health insurance (employee only), a tax-free benefit worth about $5,000.

Supporters of the pay raise say employees have been working extra hard to make up for vacancies. But the vacancies tend to be clustered in certain areas. About half are at the sheriff’s office and jail. So we reward overworked jailers and deputies by giving elected, part-time Quorum Court members the same pay raise? Why not raise jailer pay significantly? Or hire more jailers? And, better still, why not keep accumulating cash to open more jail beds?

It seems cold to oppose a pay increase. The chief deputy clerk complains that average pay in his office is only $28,500. That’s not a king’s ransom. Federal statistics show, however, that it’s in line with pay for similar jobs in the metro area. It’s almost the minimum state starting pay for certified public school teachers. It’s more, cough, than many newspaper reporters make. But job security is worth something. Ask a laid-off reporter.

There’s little evidence of significant loss of county employees to other businesses – a nurse or two at the jail, maybe, and the occasional skilled office worker. There’s little evidence either, that the county has given any thought to whether it has created too many jobs to begin with (law enforcement is an obvious exception). It might be that county employees are underpaid. But more evidence is needed. We do know the county is short-changing vital areas. Its leaders say, basically, that taxpayers can afford bonuses but not zoning or more jailers and patrol deputies.

Justice of the Peace Phil Stowers, a fiscally conservative Republican, is on target. He’s open to a salary increase. “I am generally supportive of reasonable and fact-based cost of living raises,” he told me. “They allow us to attract and retain a stable workforce. What is being proposed is more than $1 million dollars in non-incentive based, one time bonuses. I believe if we pass this we will be found derelict in our duty in the court of public opinion…”

Raising pay twice in three months on a one-size-fits-all basis, beginning with elected officials, is -- along with deficit spending and poor services – the sort of thing that has made voters cold historically to county tax increases. Public opinion does count.

Comments

Aside from the fact all law enforcement would like to see some resolution to the jail problem for obvious reasons, residents of Pulaski County would like to see some responsible stewardship of County funds.

To our beloved tax assessor and tax collector - Try to tell people in stable neighborhoods they can get what the County's appraiser says their home is worth. I've yet to have seen anything sell without a "price reduced" in a long long time if it sells at all before they take it off the market.

Wouldn't local governments like to have the assessor's office money machine going for them??

Posted by: PHilldweller | October 13, 2009 02:30 PM

Max--It's really not fair to add one-time bonuses to each other and come up with a "17 percent in pay enhancements" statement. Consider how bonuses work. If I make $10,000 a year and I get a 4% bonus this year, I get a total of $10,400--my base pay of $10,000 plus my bonus of $400. But I start next year at the same base pay of $10,000. Say I get a 4% again bonus again next year. My total pay is $10,400--my base pay of $10,000 plus the $400 bonus. If I get a 4 percent bonus in the third year, again I get $10,400 for the year. But my base pay hasn't changed. So, using your math, you'd say I got 12 PERCENT IN PAY ENHANCEMENTS. When, in fact, all I got was the equivalent of one 4% increase--my annual pay went from $10,000 per year to $10,400 per year. And if I keep on just getting a 4% bonus every year, I'll still be making $10,400 every year.

I agree with you on the raises--you can add those together because they actually increase your base salary. But adding bonuses with pay raises is apples and oranges and overstates the actual increase in pay received by the employees.

And, no, I'm not a county employee.

ARK. BLOG: I've presented events accurately and have tried to distinguish between pay and bonuses. But the cumulative effect of enhancements is as given. Still, you're looking at 10 percent in pay raises over two years and an average 3.5 percent bonus per year. So is it only, fairly expressed, a 13.5 percent average pay increase over the two-year period? That still beats hell out of the private sector at a time of declining tax revenue.

Posted by: blueinaredstate | October 13, 2009 02:31 PM

I've never seen county government work very well in Ark. In a rural state you get a lot of people in the JP slots who are not up to the job, similar to state Legies where small town and rural areas run the place most of the time. One township=one vote doesn't work very well. They are often in it for the short run to boot.

In Washington County you get the real weirdos coming out for just the least controversial issues.
Last year they had to call on deputies to toss a couple of them out of meetings.

Posted by: eLwood | October 13, 2009 02:51 PM

What, one wonders, is the basis for the bonus? Did EVERY county employee make such an outstanding effort as to merit a bonus? The non-classified state employees at UA Fayetteville received no pay increase for FY10 so that Arkansas scholars could enjoy a year with no tuition increase. THAT merits a bonus.

Posted by: AmIBlue | October 13, 2009 04:06 PM

I'm not suggesting you didn't present events accurately or that you didn't distinguish between pay raises and bonuses. I'm just saying that you can't add all of those together and say that employees have received an 18% (or even 13.5%) increase over that period.

No, I don't think you can accurately say they've received a 13.5% average pay increase in 24 months. Let's say I ended 2007 with a base pay of $10,000. You say that county employees got a 3% bonus in 2008 and a 5% raise for 2008. So, in 2008 I got $10,000 plus $300 for my 3% bonus, and $500 for my 5% raise, for a total of $10,800 in 2008. But I ended 2008 with a base pay of just $10,500 (the bonus didn't increase my base pay).

Now you're saying I am going to get a 4% bonus this year, 2009. Based on my base salary of $10,500, my 4% bonus will be $420, for a total salary of $10,920 in 2009. But my base pay is still $10,500.

Then you say they are going to give me a 5% raise at the beginning of 2010. So, increase my $10,500 by $525 for a total of $11,025 in 2010.

Recap:
2007 $10,000
2008 $10,800
2009 $10,920
2010 $11,025

That equates to an average increase of 3.3% from 2007 to 2010. If you just look at 2008 - 2010, it's an average of about 11% per year. That still may be higher than some are getting else where, but it's a lot less than 18% or even 13.5%.

I work at a job where we get bonuses, not raises. I've been here almost 4 years. The first year I got a $2,500 bonus. The second year I got a $1,500 bonus. Did I get a $4,000 raise over that period? No, I actually took a pay cut from the first year to the second because my base salary didn't change and my bonus was smaller. I'm just saying you can't treat bonuses the same way you treat pay raises and add them all together to tell an accurate story.

ARK. BLOG: When the bonus is a regular occurrence, as the Quorum Court wishes (and they would have had another bonus earlier this year had they not been shamed out of it), it sounds and spends a lot like a pay raise. And I haven't even gotten into the "salary sweep" gimmick, by which the Quorum Court says there's been a surprlus set aside of 3 to 4 percent from all positions, even open ones, to justify the bonuses. The bonus game is hokum. I support looking at real pay raises, if justified by the pay scale, the job and the county treasury. Five percent sounds high against current conditions, but perhaps not if there's no pay raise this year. They'd be better off -- in the long run -- to work for a pay raise in 2010 for the reasons you've enumerated. But they are trying to make this bonus money out to be of no consequence somehow. It is.

Posted by: blueinaredstate | October 13, 2009 04:25 PM

Unfortunately, most residents of Pulaski County probably don't even know who their JP is and if they do they relate it with the statutory authority that JP's have to perform marriage ceremonies. They do not have a clue that the JP's make up the Quorum Court and that the Quorum Court is the legislative body of the county and decides how approximately $60 million dollars in tax revenue is spent annually. If you don't know who your JP is, Google - Pulaski County Quorum Court. There you will find their contact information. Let your voice be heard.

Posted by: Ole Red | October 13, 2009 05:04 PM

Arkansas Blog

Give them the money

Comments

Post a comment