Frustration builds along party lines as Madison County Board cuts non-union raises
Cost-of-living raises for Madison County’s non-union employees were eliminated for 2021, even as some County Board Democrats cast blame for sliding revenues toward Chairman Kurt Prenzler.
Frustrations built along partisan lines at a meeting Wednesday night, where a cost-savings plan that is hoped to save the county roughly $1 million in payroll was approved.
The vote to rescind a 2.24% cost-of-living increase originally approving in December 2019 was passed along party lines, 17-11. An estimated 362 non-union employees will be affected.
Granite City Democrat Mike Parkinson turned his frustration toward Prenzler before voting against the cuts. He said COVID-19 wasn’t fully to blame for the upcoming financial woes the county is facing.
“You kept spending money, you kept hiring your friends and giving all these people in your office exorbitant amounts of money and we kept telling you stop it. Now here we are, we’re broke,” Parkinson said. “And now you’re going to put it on the backs on the workers of Madison County.”
Republican Mick Madison called Parkinson’s comments toward Prenzler “demagoguery during an election year” and said that the right action needs to be taken now to protect taxpayers and the county.
“We’ve run a tight ship. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” Madison said. “People out there are the taxpayers who provide our budget. We’re doing this for them, not us. They are hurting right now.”
Prenzler did not immediately respond to Parkinson’s comments.
As it stands, the county is projected to be $3 million short on budgeted revenue from various taxes and fees this year, according to the county auditor’s office. Chief Deputy Auditor Jennifer Zoelzer said, while federal and state funds can help offset costs of COVID-19 issues, it cannot help offset the deficit the county is heading toward.
Republican Phil Chapman said cutting cost-of-living raises is a “small price to pay” versus laying employees off.
“A reduction in COLA, which some may view as a raise, will help us remain within budget,” Chapman said. “We hope it will allow us to keep all those currently employed by the county.”
County Auditor Rick Faccin said his only input was that the cuts to cost-of-living increases at the moment won’t affect the current budget year, but alluded to possible issues down the road.
“This will not affect this year’s budget,” Faccin said, “but there are some things looming on the horizon that will be a very expensive process.”
Earlier in the week, Prenzler said the county will be mulling over further cost-saving measures as the next fiscal year approaches. He said this coming year will be the county’s “toughest budget year” yet.
Additional measures likely will include asking unionized employees to also accept the elimination of their cost-of-living raises when new contracts are negotiatiated. Nine unions currently represent 579 Madison County employees.
See how much county employees made at https://www.bnd.com/publicpay
Prenzler said income streams from fees, sales taxes and property taxes have shrunk significantly. He said the county also expects less money in 2021 from the state and the federal government, which funds payroll for many county employees through grants and other avenues.
COVID-19 has played a large part in the shrinking of those income streams, Prenzler said. Large contributors to the county’s tax collections like bars and restaurants have been closed down or are operating in a reduced capacity for months, Prenzler said.
He said while the county prepared for a possible shortfall in the spring, revenue will still most likely be at a negative or at zero.
“Things were rolling along really nicely in January and February and then the whole world changed,” Prenzler said. “We’ve encouraged departments to conserve but we’re going to be in the negative next year.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 11:24 AM.