(Audubon) A rise in the cost of living will make a big impact on the Audubon County Board of Supervisor’s budget.
Salaries for County Employees will be going up about 8.7%. A verbal agreement has been reached with the Secondary Roads Department and their Union to get their wage increases on par with courthouse employees. “8.7% is kind of where we are heading. That’s because of the federal cost of living increase. That’s a lot of money. The total raise taken times our payroll gives you about $320,000.”
Supervisors Chairman Doug Sorensen points out this is nearly double what a typical raise would be. Ultimately it’s about $180,000 more in county salaries than expected.
“So then there becomes the question of how you pay for this raise of $180,000 to our payroll. There is one unfilled position in Secondary Roads and we’ll probably just not fill that and then maybe eliminate one other county position. That’s a discussion. We could get it down around $100,000 wage increase above and beyond what we typically see. That’s kind of where we are headed. We didn’t make any hard decision on that, but I think that’s where we are heading.”
