As he pledged during recent town hall meetings, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce wants to pay county employees more, increase Sunday library hours and address public safety staffing and retention issues in his fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, and all without a millage rate increase.
A draft version of that budget was released on Thursday, and the proposal calls for general fund spending of $440.6 million—$20 million more than the current FY 2019 budget of $420.6 million.
The featured priorities are a three percent raise for all county employees, plus an additional two percent increase for law enforcement officers.
Other additional spending will include increased Sunday library hours, a $2,500 recruitment bonuses for new police officers, reducing the percentage of funds transferred from the Cobb Water System from 10 percent to 9 percent and eliminating fees to use county senior centers.
Here’s a summary of the draft budget proposal; it’s still a preliminary document and a formal proposal will be submitted to the Cobb Board of Commissioners and it’s subject to change.
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Boyce and commissioners have come under fire from public safety personnel and citizens for what they say is a “crisis” in terms of hiring and keeping police and sheriff’s officers, firefighters and EMS personnel.
Boyce’s budget proposal includes the county making law enforcement officer contributions to the state supplemental pension plan, but there is a notable line item in the budget that indicates “unfund 40 police officers and 40 sheriff officers.”
A release accompanying the draft budget proposal said those are not positions being eliminated in FY 2020, but rather that they will not be filled in the next budget.
The budget outline didn’t indicate if Sunday library hours would be extended to all branches; last year the budget included funding for Sunday hours at four regional library branches, including Mountain View.
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Would be interested to know how the commissioners determine proper pay levels for the various jobs in county government. Do they just assume 3% is the right number for everyone? I understand there are jobs that are harder to fill than others. If so, perhaps a different distribution of $ would be advised. Do they consider overall market conditions?