Wednesday, May 25, 2011

County Board needs heat, and a lot of it

This morning's headline in the Northwest Herald was "Heat on to lift county pay freeze". There ought to be enough heat there to boil the blood of every taxpayer in McHenry County (except the County employees, who are still, at least for the time-being) out-numbered by non-County employees).

The Finance and Audit Committee approved a recommendation this week to give raises, beginning with a June paycheck. The 5-2 vote went like this:

YES: Scott Breeden, Tina Hill, Mary Donner, Robert Bless, Mary McCann.
NO: John Hammerand, James Heisler

Well, thank YOU, Mr. Hammerand and Mr. Heisler!!!!

Raises are estimated to cost $228,000 for the six months remaining in the County's fiscal year. How many in the public won't calculate that there are two halves in a year, making the cost $456,000? Allowing for a little error, let's just call it HALF A MILLION DOLLARS. For a year. For every year.

County employees are under a pay freeze. OK, so how many County employees have lost their jobs in the past two-three years because of the economy? Any?

I've got news for County Board member Bob Bless, who was quoted as saying, "...(employees') expenses keep going up like everyone else's." Well, duh....  Bob, ask your constituents who haven't been able to find work for two years whether County employees pay ought to go up! Or how they feel about losing their homes! Or filing bankruptcy!

Voters elect County Board members to represent the voters! At least, that's how it is supposed to work. Oh, and to do the right thing, since this is a democracy, not a republic. Tell the County employees: "The gravy train has pulled into the station. It is stopped. It might even back up."

And go ahead and figure out right now how you are going to fight off any employees' attempt to organize into a union. They are lucky to have jobs. Tell them to ask their neighbors in the private sector! They feel insulated and secure in their jobs. Lay off 10% of them, and let them all experience the reality of the economy. When they see their co-workers being laid off, those remaining will straighten up, work a little harder, demand a lot less.

The numbers? There are 942 non-union County employees. You had to get all the way to the end of the article to learn that 75% (706) earn less than $50,000. Of those 706, 42% (296) earn less than $30,000.

Well, what do those 942 (or 706 or 296) do? Are these full-time employees, or are there many part-time employees earning these annual pay rates? What job classifications are non-union?

Once again, to John Hammerand and Jim Heisler, THANKS!

3 comments:

sixcedars said...

Yes, thank you to Mr Hammerand and Mr Heisler.

Our family has lived with a 10% pay cut for the past 2 years, and felt lucky to still have jobs!

And the RE tax increase on our tax bills did not go unnoticed. So while making 10% less, we have to pay MORE in taxes so that McHenry County can dole out $500K in pay increases?

There definitely needs to be a reality check here in McHenry County.....

Justin said...

sixcedars...stop and look at your tax bill and you'll see the COUNTY portion is very small. The taxes are paid to the COUNTY but then are redistributed to the other taxing bodies. People always blame the county. Schools take up nearly 75% of the tax burden and they get regular increases.

Yes those are Full time employees. Clerks, janitors, most the workers do not make the big salary that people think. County employees work 1950 hours per year (37.5 hr week) Based upon that a 30K salary would be $15.38 per hour.

Why should UNION employees get raises and non union not? This just forces the non union employees to unionize and magnify the problem.

Maybe target the real tax villains which are the school districts with 9 month employees making over $100K.

Here's an idea. Freeze real estate taxes and even lower them for seniors. Abolish the Real Estate Tax and substitute a Sales tax so EVERYONE pays, not just property owners.

Consolidate government. Illinois has over 7000 taxing units. The most in the USA. New Jersey is at about 5000. Then we can see the end of duplication and see some savings.

sixcedars said...

Snidely - I don't disagree with much of what you said. I just think raises should be doled out very carefully when the economy is like it has been for several years. I think it has an appearance of being very insensitive to the people of this county if the County Board approves these employee raises.

There are still way too many people in McHenry County that are out of work or still living with pay cuts; there are too many families that have lost their homes.

Do I have empathy with county employees making $30,000 (and less)? Absolutely I do - it is very difficult to have a decent lifestyle on those kinds of salaries.

But having a salary is better than not having one at all.

I am not thrilled with the raises (or salaries) many teachers get either. Not that some of them aren't worth it - but I find it hard to believe that so many, especially school administrators, are truly worth the hundreds of thousands in salaries, benefits, and retirement funds they are getting.

Whatever happens, there are no easy solutions. Government entities of all types need to live within their budgets.