Panel opposes worker raises

BENTON COUNTY — Benton County’s justices of the peace balked at raises for county employees Thursday, leaving work on the 2012 budget undone pending further discussion.

By a 4-3 vote, the justices of the peace defeated a plan to give a 2 percent cost-of-living raise and up to 3 percent merit raises. Justices of the Peace Kurt Moore, Steve Curry and Joel Jones voted in favor of the proposal. Voting against it were Tom Allen, Frank Winscott, Jay Harrison and Dan Douglas.

Several of the justices of the peace said they thought 5 percent raises were too much to handle at one time.

“I wasn’t in favor of 5 percent,” Allen said. “I’ll probably get picked on for that. I just thought 5 percent was too high.”

Moore said he was willing to have his motion amended, reducing the raises to 2 percent costof-living and 2 percent formerit raises, but after Harrison made a motion to that effect, no other justice of the peace would offer a second.

A salary survey for the county suggested a 2 percent cost-of-living raise plus possible merit raises up to 3 percent were needed.

Richard McComas, the county’s comptroller, developed a projected budget including a 5 percent raise for employees andelected officials. McComas estimated the county’s 2012 revenue at $41.2 million and expenses at $42.5 million.

He said the county would make up the difference with money left over from 2011.

The county has averaged $970,524 left over the past nine years, reaching $2.4 million in 2009, he said. In 2010, he said, the leftover totaled $1.7 million. McComas projected $1million would be left from 2011.

After the vote on the 5 percent raises failed, the justices of the peace instructed McComas to prepare a revised budget with no raises for discussion at the next meeting.

“I really have a problem making a decision when I haven’t seen where the changes we’ve made put us,” Douglas said. “I’m not going to vote for a deficit budget.”

The committee voted to include an additional $1.8 million in the budget’s capital projects to replace Fisher Ford Road Bridge and Colonel Meyers Road Bridge. County Judge Bob Clinard estimated the cost of replacing Colonel Meyers Road Bridge at about $600,000 and said the county’s $1.2 million to $1.5 million estimate to replace Fisher Ford Road Bridge is still a working number.