Effingham County residents told their county commissioners that pay raises for county employees pale in comparison to their property taxes.

County commissioners held off on adopting a budget, voting 5-1 to extend the current budget by two months.

“The money is the issue — not the raises,” said Ruth Lee.

Under the proposed budget presented to commissioners earlier this month, the county will not increase spending for the coming fiscal year — which starts July 1 — and is anticipating a millage rate rollback to 8.687.

Commissioners also asked county staff to look into $1 million in fund balance to apply the budget. Using that money would reduce the millage to 8.15. Commissioners requested that move to offset the loss of the homeowners tax relief grant from the state. Losing the HTRG costs homeowners an average of $228, Crawley said, while further cutting the millage to 8.15 will result in a $25 savings on a home valued at $100,000.

What the millage rate will be is dependent upon the digest, which could be finished by the end of July. Effingham commissioners have approved a 4 percent cost of living adjustment and 2 percent merit raises for county employees.

Those raises account for about $620,000, and commissioners have frozen certain open positions, resulting in a savings of about $313,000.
The county currently is advertising for 13 open positions, eight of which are in public safety.

“The county identified a deficiency in paying its employees,” said Chairman Dusty Zeigler. “We found we were way behind in paying employees.”  

Zeigler said commissioners had come up with a plan to close that gap — which was at 7 percent behind the pay levels of similarly-sized counties — slowly. Commissioners also have battled high turnover rates, especially in the sheriff’s department, and pointed to the plan to raise the compensation level as a way of cutting into the turnovers. Not increasing the pay could lead to more turnover, according to Zeigler.

“When the economy picks back up, those good employees are going to leave,” he said. “That’s my experience.”

Zeigler said some other local entities and industries also are planning on raises this year, including the school board and Georgia-Pacific.

Loper, who voted against extending the current budget another two months, reiterated his stance against the raises.

“There are people losing jobs all over the county and all over the state,” he said. “I think everybody who works for the county has a fair job.

“Over the last couple of years, we’ve tried to get our employees up to standard around the state,” Loper continued. “We’ve got a better insurance policy. We’ve tried to eliminate turnover in the sheriff’s department and the county. I don’t think we need to give any raises at this time. Other counties are not giving raises this year.”

County Administrator David Crawley said his information was that Chatham County was going to include longevity raises and that Liberty County would be including cost of living adjustments. Liberty County will enact 1.5 percent COLAs, deferred to Jan. 1, 2010, and also may extend longevity raises, though those are dependent upon the value of the tax digest.

“I am not here to put down county employees are say they are not doing a good job,” Lee said. “The county has a financial crunch it needs to take a look at. In good times, it would be good to give these raises. But these are not good times.”

Lee pointed out that the legal notices in the Effingham Herald contained eight pages of foreclosures and added that the Chatham County tax digest fell by 4 percent.

Lee also took issue with Zeigler’s contention that without the raises, county employees could leave for better jobs once the economy improves.

“Where are they going?” she asked. “People are desperate for jobs.”

“The county employees should be grateful they have jobs,” said Aline Grovenstein.

Grovenstein added the voters approved the Carter-Burns Act that limited property assessments, but the county’s spending offsets its impact.

“We need a break,” Grovenstein said. “You guys are going nuts.”

Several constitutional officers were at the meeting, including Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie. McDuffie said his department cut nine open certified patrol positions and two dispatcher jobs in order to create enough savings to put the county in a competitive position for existing officers.

“We’ve come a long way. We’ve worked hard to get where we’re at,” he said.

He also said the economy has forced other law enforcement agencies to not raise salaries.

“But once this recession subsides,” he warned, “they’ll get back in the game.”

McDuffie said he didn’t want to see the county’s compensation for its employees fall behind again.  

“I appreciate what you are doing to lower taxes for everybody,” he said. “But standing back on our salaries where we came from two or three years ago is not the answer.”

Ashley Kieffer said he’s had to make cuts in his business and told commissioners what is being asked of them is not to raise salaries right now.

“I think they do a fantastic job,” he said of the county’s employees. “I’m in favor of raises for everyone who works hard. But times are tough, so just hold off for this year until the economy improves.”

“I think there are places we can cut some more money,” he said.