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September 12, 2012

Council OKs 5-percent pay increase for county employees

Howard Greninger The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Vigo County employees will receive the equivalent of a 5-percent pay raise in the county’s final 2013 budget.

It marks the second consecutive year county workers will receive a pay increase. Employees did not receive a pay increase in 2010 and 2011.

The raise came as the Vigo County Council approved a final budget Tuesday. The budget next will go before the Department of Local Government Finance for final review.

Employees on a grade and step-pay system will receive a one-step increase and a 4-percent salary increase, which averages to about a 5-percent raise. For example, an employee with a step and grade of 7-7 (seven years at step seven) this year earns $26,570. In 2013, the employee will earn $28,078.

Non-grade employees — which includes elected officials, department heads and sheriff’s deputies — will receive a 5-percent pay increase. Vigo County Commissioners will earn $51,278 in 2013, up from $48,836 this year.

Other elected officials, such as county assessor, auditor, clerk and recorder, will each earn $47,858 next year. Merit deputies will receive $40,526 in 2013 while a chief deputy will earn $52,636.

The Vigo County Council initially looked as if it would receive a pay increase next year, when a motion was made and seconded to pay council members $13,128 for members who receive the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) and $13,522 for those not eligible for PERF.

However, a roll call vote was split 3-3, with council members Tim Curley, Bill Bryan and Mark Bird voting against the raise. Councilman Brad Anderson was absent.

The council then unanimously voted to keep the council’s salary at its 2012 base level of $12,503 and $12,878 for those not eligible for PERF after a motion from Curley, seconded by Bryan. The council voted not to give itself a salary increase in 2009, 2010 or 2011, but did receive a 4.57 percent pay increase for 2012.

The council approved a 2013 budget of $53,606,331. That is more than $4.6 million less than a proposed budget in early August.

The council denied a $3 million request from the Rainy Day Fund by the Vigo County Commissioners, cutting that amount to $400,000. The money was sought for the county’s highway department and road repair.

The 2013 budget also does not include funding for the Vigo County Air Pollution Control Department. The measure, which cut the department’s three remaining positions from the county payroll, saved the county $222,656. However, the council did place an additional $59,000 in its budget for unemployment claims next year.

The County Council’s biggest reduction was actually a shift to newly separated funding source. The State Board of Accounts this year instructed all counties to move the County Adjusted Gross Income Tax, or CAGIT, into its own separate fund.

The council reduced the county’s general fund by $3.6 million, designating that those funds come from CAGIT. That money will fund public safety, including salaries of deputy sheriffs. The exception is the 2013 salary of Vigo County Sheriff Greg Ewing, which by law must be paid from the general fund. The sheriff will earn $135,080 in 2013.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger @tribstar.com.

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