Council proposes 3.5% pay hike

Mike Grant, Washington Times-Herald, Ind.
3 min read
0

May 8—The Daviess County Council is recommending a base level 3.5% pay raise for county employees with some additional increases to keep some departments competitive.

The county's wage committee originally suggested a 4% increase. Councilman Mike Sprinkle suggested lowering the amount to 3%. His proposal died for lack of a second. The council then approved the 3.5% hike of a four to three vote. The members of the wage committee all voted against the lowered amount.

"When we went into this, we felt we were looking at a 3.5-4% increase based on national economic factors that are out there, and the comparison between Daviess County and other counties in Indiana," said council president Tom Schaffer who also served on the wage committee. "We know in Indiana where we are versus the average. Given the size county we have, and based on what we have seen in other counties, we needed to raise to 4% so that we can retain people and get new people."

With the number of employees in Daviess County, officials say that each half percent raise translates into $50,000 annually.

While the 3.5% is on the base pay, the council carved out some additional increases for employees that were significantly trailing the pay their counterparts around Indiana are receiving.

"When we looked at the pay in similar counties, we found that our road deputy pay was way out of line," said Schaffer. "Two years ago, the state raised trooper pay to $90,000 annually. It caused a ripple effect all the way down through counties, cities, towns and even the township level. A lot of counties began giving $5,000 raises to keep their deputies. We didn't do that. Now, our road deputies are $5,000 behind the average pay."

Another area where the county struggles in matching pay is with the highway department employees. Many of them have skills that higher paying private sector employers want.

"When you have people with those skills, their compensation in the private sector is higher," said Schaffer. "On a dollar-for-dollar basis we can't normally compete with the private sector. One thing we do have is a good benefit package. There is health insurance, our paid time off is good and the hours are often better. When you add up everything the county has a lot to offer."

The recommendation now goes to county department heads and elected officials who will use that amount as a baseline as they build their budgets for the coming year. Those budgets will come up for approval in August.

In other business, the council signed off on the sale of the old salt building in Washington's west end for $95,000 to Drew's Concrete Pumping.

The council received a report from Daviess County Chief Deputy Steve Sturgis on the ongoing effort to improve the county's communication system.

Baker-Tilley was retained by the council to do a cash flow analysis on the county finances. The study will cost $15,000.

The council also agreed to a $30,644 increase to the commissioner's budget to pay for an additional cost for insurance.

Advertisement

Recommended Stories

  • US Is Slowing AI Chip Exports to Middle East by Nvidia, AMD

    (Bloomberg) -- US officials have slowed the issuing of licenses to chipmakers such as Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for large-scale AI accelerator shipments to the Middle East, according to people familiar with the matter, while officials conduct a national security review of AI development in the region.Most Read from BloombergDonald Trump Becomes First Former US President Guilty of CrimesWorld’s Largest Nuclear Plant Sits Idle While Energy Needs SoarSouth Africa Election Results

  • F-35 Crashes After Leaving Lockheed Martin Factory

    The $90 million plane had just left the plant.

  • The bond market is freaking out about inflation. It could be very wrong.

    Treasury yields are spiking on renewed inflation risks, but the bond market has been wrong before and could be again.

  • Stuck at sea for years, a sailor's plight highlights a surge in shipowner abandonment

    Abdul Nasser Saleh says he rarely got a good night’s sleep during the near-decade he spent working without pay on a cargo ship abandoned by its owner at ports along the Red Sea. By day he paced the deck, stuck for the last two years in the seaport of Jeddah, unable to set foot on land because of Saudi Arabia’s strict immigration laws. Saleh’s plight is part of a global problem that shows no signs of abating.

  • Supreme Court gives homeowners another chance in escrow dispute with Bank of America

    The Supreme Court on Thursday gave homeowners another chance to force Bank of America and other large banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts. The court unanimously threw out an appeals court ruling in favor of Bank of America, which has refused to pay interest on money it collects to pay borrowers' insurance and property tax bills. A federal judge initially ruled in favor of the borrowers, but the federal appeals court in New York granted Bank of America's request to dismiss the suits, arguing that the federal law governing national banks does not permit such state-by-state regulation.

  • White House: Extending Trump’s tax cuts would be an 'inflation bomb'

    The White House is releasing a new public memo Thursday that seeks to link the extension of Trump-era tax cuts to inflation, a top-of-mind issue for voters.

  • Trump seemingly sold one of his private jets to a major Republican donor

    The sale of his Cessna Citation X comes as Trump is facing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

  • Putting Bitcoin on the ballot: Trump backs cryptocurrency

    During his presidency, Trump was vocal about his disdain for cryptocurrencies.

  • IRS makes free tax return program permanent and is asking all states to join in 2025

    The IRS said Thursday it will make permanent the free electronic tax return filing system that it experimented with this year and is asking all 50 states and the District of Columbia to help taxpayers file their returns through the program in 2025. The IRS tried the Direct File project for the 2024 tax season on a limited basis in 12 states for people with very simple W-2s, the employee’s wage and tax statement. The agency also is inviting all states with a state income tax to sign up and help people file their state returns for free.

  • Consumers curb US economic growth in first quarter, inflation cools

    (Reuters) -The U.S. economy grew more slowly in the first quarter than previously estimated after downward revisions to consumer spending and a key measure of inflation ticked down, keeping the Federal Reserve on track to possibly begin cutting interest rates at least once before the end of the year. Gross domestic product - the broadest measure of economic activity - grew at an 1.3% annualized rate from January through March, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday, down from the advance estimate of 1.6% and notably slower than the 3.4% pace in the final three months of 2023. The first-quarter growth downgrade suggests the U.S. central bank's aim of gradually cooling the economy through high interest rates is having an impact as consumers increasingly balk at higher prices, although it remains uncertain whether the weakening trend in inflation will continue.