The Herald Bulletin - Editorial: County officials were right to offer pay cuts

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Published October 17, 2009 10:37 am - The finances in Madison County are in a precarious situation. The County Council must come up with a budget in the next 10 days, and the members are still looking for $3.8 million in cuts. Whatever happens the result will be painful, and the county will have to make do with less.

Editorial: County officials were right to offer pay cuts

The finances in Madison County are in a precarious situation. The County Council must come up with a budget in the next 10 days, and the members are still looking for $3.8 million in cuts. Whatever happens the result will be painful, and the county will have to make do with less.

It was encouraging at Tuesday’s meeting that the council members, commissioners and some department heads came forth offering to have their salaries cut 4 percent. Once the ball was rolling, people jumped on and the result was a selfless show of unity and a willingness to put the county ahead of its personnel.

Of course, what everyone is giving up won’t come close to meeting the necessary cuts, but it’s a real and also symbolic gesture that other county workers need to join. It’s like a kid giving up her candy to a friend who had none. Although giving up the candy doesn’t solve the friend’s inability to get her own candy, it’s the willingness and desire to help that is important.

The County Council faces difficult choices as it crafts a budget in the next week. The council will probably look at joining Anderson in raising the county option income tax (COIT) along with more expenditure cuts to meet the goal of $3.8 million.

But a tax increase should be last on the list. The county will have to learn to take what it gets in revenue and apply it to services rendered. There will need to be creative thinking about what the county can and cannot do, and what accomplishments it hopes to meet within budget restrictions. By taking all things into consideration, the county can learn to operate more efficiently within the new reality of less revenue.

All local governments are going through this. The County Council will have another budget hearing on Oct. 22 and a public hearing on COIT on Oct. 26. Members of the public will be on hand to offer input, but at the end of the day the council members will have to vote on a budget. The unity among county officials — as the pay cuts request showed — will certainly be tested when it comes time to cut budget items.