County Adopts 2013 Budget

— More than 570 Washington County employees will get a 50-cent per hour raise next year after the Quorum Court adopted its 2013 budget Thursday night.

By The Numbers

Hourly Raises

What does a 50-cent hourly raise mean for more than 570 Washington County employees?

• The top 20 wage earners would get an average 1.8 percent pay increase. Those workers make an average $28.22 per hour.

• The middle 213 employees, or about 37 percent, would get an average 2.5 percent pay increase. Those workers average $19.65 per hour.

• The lowest paid 338 employees, or about 59 percent, would get an average 3.7 percent pay increase. Those workers make an average $13.36 per hour.

Source: Johanson Group

“We just set history since I’ve been in office. We got a 100 percent vote for the budget,” said County Judge Marilyn Edwards as the group of 13 justices of the peace applauded their vote.

In recent years, budget votes fell among contentious waters where Quorum Court members mostly voted along party lines after a three-meeting debate in December 2010 about a last-minute 4 percent cut. Last year three justices of the peace voted against, after naysayers objected to the county proposing to spend more than it was bringing in revenue.

This year, the county’s Budget Committee did a line-by-line item review of all spending requests from full-time elected officials and departments heads. The committee slashed some budgets and approved increases among other request.

The county gave its final revenue projection of $41 million for the general fund. That amount includes $23.9 million in new revenue, plus $17.1 million in “carryover.” The term, County Treasurer Roger Haney said last month, includes the $13.2 million in reserve plus 10 percent of this year’s revenue required to be unspent by state law, unless needed.

The $23.9 million plus 2013’s 10 percent hold back of $4.1 million equals $27.9 million in new revenue. Elected officials requested to spend $26.6 million or a difference of $1.4 million in more revenue.

The overall $41 million projected revenue in 2013 is up from this year’s $39.4 million. Next year’s proposed spending dropped to $26.6 million from 2012’s proposed $29.8 million.

“I’m always cautiously optimistic and I know anything can happen at budget votes,” said Justice of the Peace Candy Clark, chairwoman of the Budget Committee. “I think the court did a lot of hard work.”

Despite the budget cuts, justices of the peace approved more than $750,000 extra toward raises for employees. The effort was to close the gap between lower and higher paid employees. The 50-cent per hour raise could mean an average 3.7 percent pay increase for 338 of the county’s lower paid employee, according to an analysis done earlier this year by the county’s salary consultant.

Another highlight, came from a $134,934 increase to keep the county Drug Court afloat at the request of Circuit Judge Chadd Mason. Other budgets were slashed including a $1 million request for a part and repair line item under the buildings and grounds budget supervised by Edwards.

Budget Committee member dropped that request to $500,000 after they learned $89,887 was spent in 2011 and $114,504 was spent through Oct. 14.

Upcoming Events