PINE BLUFF -- Jefferson County officials are struggling to figure out how to pay many of the county's workers later this month in light of tax revenue shortfalls that have left the county in want of funds.
Justice of the Peace Lloyd Franklin II has been shopping around a plan this week, proposing that county offices lend money from other areas of their budgets to cover the cost of paying workers.
Franklin said that could tide the county over until October, when tax revenue -- the county's primary funding source -- begins streaming in again.
Still, job cuts will likely be needed to prevent future shortfalls, some county officials have said.
Jefferson County Treasurer Elizabeth Rinchuso questioned Franklin's plan, saying she wasn't aware that any department had spare money to loan and didn't know how any loaned money could ever be paid back.
"I certainly haven't seen it," she said of spare departmental money.
The county is nearly $115,000 short of being able to meet July's payroll, the treasurer said.
The county spends $600,000 each month on salaries out of $750,000 allotted for expenses, but tax revenue has been in steady decline over the past two decades as the county's population has dwindled.
Since 2000, Jefferson County has lost more than 11,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county's current population is 73,191, according to a 2013 census estimate.
County Judge Dutch King blamed the financial shortfall on the county's population losses, adding, "We have now come to the day of reckoning. We can't keep operating like this. I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs, but we have steadily lost population without making adjustments."
There have been several proposals on how county workers can get paid this month, but the Quorum Court hasn't been able to agree on one. The Quorum Court is to meet again at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Justices of the peace voted 8-5 Monday night to table a proposed ordinance that would have reduced the salaries of employees paid from the county's general fund. The move would have saved enough money to meet the payroll, but several justices of the peace objected to it, saying more discussion is needed before they decide whether to take money out of workers' pockets.
Under the proposal that justices tabled, the offices of the Jefferson County treasurer, tax collector and assessor would be exempt from salary cuts because their offices are self-funded. Reducing all other salaries paid from the county general fund by 20 percent would potentially save the county $120,000 per month, according to the proposal.
More than 100 workers would be affected by salary cuts if the proposal passes. Elected officials' salaries would not be cut because Arkansas Code Annotated 14-14-1203 states that those salaries cannot be changed during the officials' terms.
To keep the county operating without interruption, the proposal calls for elected officials, "to structure the reductions in any manner which they deem feasible to maintain office hours consistent with current office hours and may offset reductions by any other funding sources to which they have access and authority over."
Justice of the Peace and Finance Committee Chairman Herman Ginger said he proposed the salary cuts, "to save people's jobs. I think it's better to have people working at a reduced salary than not having a salary at all."
Others, such as Franklin, said that asking employees to take a pay cut isn't an acceptable option.
Meanwhile, many county employees are on edge, wondering if they should start planning for pay cuts in the near future.
Several workers said they didn't want to speak publicly about the matter because they didn't want to risk being targeted for layoffs as a result.
But, Lt. Jennifer Carr, a detective with the Jefferson County sheriff's office, said she feels that it's unfair for county officials to ask public safety workers to take pay cuts. She said her office is already understaffed, and she urged elected officials to cut their own salaries before cutting workers' pay.
At Monday's Quorum Court meeting, a visibly upset Carr told justices of the peace that they "need to understand that these are people's full-time jobs.
"Y'all have other jobs to go to when you leave here. We don't."
State Desk on 07/03/2015