Most Guilford County employees don’t come to the Guilford County Board of Commissioner meetings.
But if there had been a group of employees at the board’s Thursday, June 16 meeting, they probably would have jumped for joy and carried the county commissioners out of the room on their shoulders due to their delight over the new county budget adopted that night. A lot of groups, social programs and county departments made out like bandits that evening, and county employees got more love than they have in a very long time.
After the meeting where the new fiscal 2022-2023 budget was adopted on a 6-to-3 party line vote, with all six Democrats voting to approve the budget, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston admitted that there was a whole lot in the budget for county employees.
“This budget is very, very, very, very good to the employees,” Alston acknowledged.
He said multiple factors went into the board’s thinking. For instance, he said, county employee pay and benefits hadn’t kept up with those in other similarly situated local governments.
He also said that Guilford County’s insufficient pay structure and benefits were making it hard to retain the best employees and hire new ones.
For months, Guilford County Manager Mike Halford argued hard for more employee pay and perks – and the Board of Commissioners added more of the same before adopting the budget on June 16.
All county employees, including well-paid directors, had received a 5 percent pay increase six months ago.
The budget includes $15 million – with $13.4 million coming from county funds and $1.6 million from projected federal/state reimbursements – to cover the higher pay.
It also includes funding for a mid-year merit average increase of 3 percent that will be doled out based on employee performance.
Halford’s budget message also points to more raises in the future. He stated: “The current effort to analyze and design an updated pay structure is on-going and the budget allocation represents a placeholder pending completion of the study. Once the analysis is complete, we will continue discussions with the Board to define an appropriate compensation philosophy and framework.”
(Read: We will ask for more pay increases.)
Some other perks in the new budget include providing an automatic 5 percent 401(k) contribution to all benefit-eligible employees as well as a continuation of the current automatic 5 percent 401(k) contribution to sworn officers who work for the county, reinstating the longevity bonus pay system that was done away with years ago and offering new retention bonuses for hard-to-fill jail guard and Emergency Services positions.
Well, isn’t that just so nice for all the County employees?
I work in the Productive Sector and I don’t have the ability to force other people to fund a raise for me that is “very, very, very, very good” (Alston). I cannot use the coercive power of taxation to extort more money from my customers. In the free market they must voluntarily agree to hand over their money, happily, or they would refuse to do so.
In a nutshell, that is the difference between the Productive Sector and the Parasitic Sector.
We live amongst Public Sector greed and Private Sector privation.
Public sector are just people trying to make a living and have historically been paid well below their peers in the private sector. What basis do you call Mary in the title office greedy?
In recent history, Chris, too many private sector folks were put out of work, by government entities who deemed their jobs and places of employment as non-essential, while ALL public sector politicians and employees kept their jobs, and kept getting paid.
…. and kept getting paid even more!
So lump Mary down at the Title office with the handful of politically elected? Just very disingenuous and hateful. But that is to be expected from you Austin.
Is there anything in my comment you’d like to actually refute?
Are you denying the gross rapaciousness of the public sector? We can all see them expropriating increasingly obscene amounts of money for themselves and their empires (while the people struggle).
It’s disgusting.
If you want to be veddy gud to your employees, you might start with paying the officers of the GPD enough to attract and keep new officers. And leave them alone so they can do their job.
At the rate you are going, it’s gonna be every one for themselves. Shopping and working during daylight, or in public with a group with at least one armed member.
Anarchy is what you are creating. Is that what you want so that you can assume dictatorial powers for our own protection, and for the greater good?
Maybe we can get volunteers to work for free.
Inflation is reported to be 8.6%. Actually, it’s around 20%. My property tax for Guilford County and Greensboro will be 32% higher this year than in 2021.
GPD Officers are paid by the City of Greensboro; Sheriff Deputies are paid by Guilford County.
It appears that some folks are in a constant state of confusion.
i am (in a constant state of confusion). I’ve even sewn a little flag & sing a little patriotic song every time i hear a truck fart.