Appeal to county employees: Budget deficit will disappear ... if all raises do, too

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Now the ball is in the court of Yakima County employees.

Two Yakima County commis-sioners wrote personal checks Wednesday to return their 2010 pay increase and are hoping employees will share some of their wage increases to fill a $1.1 million county budget hole.

The controversy over the commissioners’ Dec. 16 vote to increase salaries for six elected officials has played out for three weeks. Commissioners Mike Leita and Rand Elliott called it a “three-ring circus” and said it’s obscuring the threat posed by the county’s looming budget problems.

Leita, commission chairman this year, said he hopes the gesture he and Elliott made of each donating $1,980 to the county will end the rhetoric that has surrounded the pay issue and show that commissioners are serious about dealing with the budget problem.

If all of the county’s 1,200 employees donate their step increases back to the county, the 2010 budget shortfall would be erased, the commissioners said.

“If employees are indeed serious and concerned about layoffs and are willing to return their step increases, the problem will disappear,” Leita said before handing a personal check to county Treasurer Ilene Thomson.

Leita and Elliott said commissioners will wait until March 15 to see how much employees donate from the 3 percent stepincrease they are sched-uled to receive this year before acting to reduce hours for county operations or to close administrative offices one day a week.

Leita indicated that more layoffs are likely to be part of the mix if a gap remains.

“We either work for less, or we will have less working,” he said.

Commissioner Kevin Bouchey is out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment. He voted against the decision to grant the 2.5 percent increases to the county assessor, auditor, treasurer, clerk, sheriff and coroner. Commissioners received the same increase, amounting to $1,980 annually, under a resolution a previous commission approved in 2006.

Last week, Bouchey announced he would donate his raise to charity. County Auditor Corky Mattingly made a similar announcement on New Year’s Eve. And on Tuesday, Thomson, Mattingly, Assessor Dave Cook and Sheriff Ken Irwin went before county commissioners asking that their salaries be frozen.

County Clerk Kim Eaton also favors a wage freeze. The sixth official, Coroner Jack Hawkins, said Wednesday he believes all wages should be frozen to help save jobs.

More than half of the county’s $1.1 million shortfall is being driven by the loss of state sales tax equalization funds coming from Olympia that help counties where sales tax revenues fall far below the statewide average. Yakima County commissioners also want to repay money borrowed from reserves.

Yakima County actually saw an increase in total sales tax revenues between 2008 and 2009, but an overall dip in per capita sales tax statewide catapulted the county above the maximum threshold to receive money.

County employees at the courthouse expressed some uncertainty Wednesday about how to respond to the action taken by Leita and Elliott to return their raises back to the county.

Some said they weren’t sure what to make of the request that they also contribute, while others indicated a willingness to contribute to avoid more layoffs.

“I am willing to do it if it saves jobs,” said Maha Nassar, an 11-year Treasurer’s Office employee.

Twenty-six people lost their jobs at the start of this year to balance the $51.9 million budget.

Yvette Lewis, staff representative for the largest union representing courthouse employees, Council 2 of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees in Yakima, was busy with employee groups she represents outside the county and could not be reached for comment.

Council 2 represents nearly 300 of the county’s employees.

Wayne Johnson, business representative for Teamsters Local 760 of Yakima, said he doubts the corrections and sheriff’s office employees he represents will agree to donate money back to the county.

“Most, I believe, are underpaid as it is. I don’t think the feeling is they should have to take a cut,” Johnson said.

County pay scales include step raises that coincide with the number of years an employee has worked for the county. Each step represents a 3 percent wage increase.

Some employees are at the top of those pay scales and receive only cost-of-living increases that are bargained by the unions.

Making a personal contribution to the county to offset the budget shortfall could be tricky. Employees won’t see a step boost this year until February’s paychecks, and any donation would have to be pretax to avoid incurring an income tax obligation on the donated amount.

Despite the public furor swirling around the management pay issue, Elliott said Wednesday that commissioners still believe the six elected officials deserve pay increases because of their workloads.

But he added that commissioners want to focus on the larger issue of reducing spending.

Elliott said the county’s desire to maintain its $5 million in reserves is not designed to hoard public money, but to make sure the county can meet cash flow needs during months when property tax receipts are low. The county receives large infusions of property tax payments in April and October. It is the two prior months during the year — March and September — when receipts are lowest.

• David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.