County employees expected to get 8% raise

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The Jackson County Council has been working on the county budget, and if its plan comes to fruition, all county employees will receive an 8% raise.

Councilman Brian Thompson said the council received a lot of feedback from department heads that they had been struggling keeping employees, so the council looked into how it could help.

“With the time we’re going through with inflation and (costs) going up dramatically, we focused on trying to see what we can do for those employees and do something that will take care of all of them,” he said.

Thompson credited the ability to provide a significant raise to county employees to the fact that the council hasn’t overspent on a budget in the time that he has been on the council.

Even with the 8% raise, the proposed county budget is a balanced budget, and there is a positive balance of $132, Thompson said.

The raise was described as a proactive move, instead of reactive, by Thompson, and he said he hopes the council will not have as many additional appropriations throughout next year.

But a significant raise across the board for county employees does come with a tradeoff.

Thompson said the Jackson County Jail was hoping to add salaries for new employees, but that request cannot be made in order to provide the raises.

Another factor that helped in the process of getting county employees’ raises, Thompson said, was the fact there is an approximate 5% increase in the county’s budget this year.

The budget will be up for approval at the council’s next meeting at 8 a.m. Oct. 19 at the Jackson County Courthouse, 111 S. Main St., Brownstown.

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