Are county pay hikes sustainable?

Where’s the money going to come from?
The impulse to make Jay County government pay levels more competitive with comparable counties makes sense.
That’s important when it comes to attracting and keeping talented employees.
But the county council’s plan to make a huge pay adjustment in 2012 is tougher to fathom.
And the longer-term question of where the money will come from is tougher to answer.
To make the pay adjustment next year, the county will have to tap its cash reserves to the tune of about $300,000 as we understand it. But those reserves are finite, and the extra payroll cost will be ongoing.
Though the rainy day cash balance is pretty healthy at the moment, over-spending revenues by $300,000 a year will soon make a dent.
The optimistic bet-on-the-future strategy might make sense if an era of higher county tax revenues were expected.
But it’s far more likely that county property tax revenues are going to be increasingly pinched in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, the county general fund will face continuing pressure when it comes to covering health insurance costs.
One can’t help but wonder where the money’s going to come from. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]