County postpones employee pay hike in light of pandemic
Upcoming pay raises for county employees have been postponed in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with no date set for their implementation.
At their regular meeting Thursday, the Union County Quorum Court voted unanimously to hold off on a planned 3% pay raise for full-time county employees. Deputies and detention officers employed at the Union County Sheriff’s Office were set to receive a 6% raise that has also been postponed.
“If everyone stays home and just buys groceries, our revenue is going to be down; we’re going to be hit hard,” District 1 Justice of the Peace Mike Dumas said.
The county receives over 60% of its revenue from sales tax, Dumas said; with the mass shuttering of many local retail and hospitality businesses and Centers for Disease Control social distancing guidelines imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic, sales tax revenues are likely to be significantly lower than projected when the raise was approved.
The Quorum Court receives a monthly recap of revenues that shows tax collections and any other revenue generated by the county, but those typically take a month to produce. This month, they’ll see revenue generated in January, so it will be unclear until April at the earliest
what sort of economic effect the pandemic will have on the county budget.
Some revenue generated at the county level is first returned to the state of Arkansas before it is redistributed to counties, Dumas said, so it could be as late as May before the county knows the full economic impact.
“You never know what tomorrow is going to bring,” District 6 JP Cecil Polk said. “When we voted on this, we didn’t know this was going to happen. … There’s a lot of businesses and industries that have been affected by this. It’s a tough decision.”
Since the total drop in revenue will not be measurable for several months, the Quorum Court opted to postpone the pay raise indefinitely, with plans to reconsider the effective date of the raise at next month’s meeting, which is scheduled for April 17. The raise was originally supposed to go into effect on March 27.
“When we come out of this, it’ll be the first thing on our agenda — when we see a clear path to do it,” District 7 JP Johnny Burson said.
Last month, Sheriff Ricky Roberts noted that even with the pay raise, his employees would still be making less than sheriff’s office employees in Columbia and Ashley counties. Dumas also noted that the 2020 Census, for which forms were mailed out to this month, could impact revenues; if the county is shown to have a decrease in population since 2010, federal funding could be cut, further impacting the county’s economic situation.
“When we see how much it will fall, we’ll have a better idea what we can look at, and plus, we’ll also have a better idea of what the state’s stance is when we reconvene in April,” District 3 JP Greg Harrison said. “Sounds like a brilliant idea.”
Dumas moved to delay the effective date of the pay increase indefinitely, with the issue to be reviewed monthly until the raises are able to go into effect. Present members voted unanimously in agreement; District 5 JP Carolyn Jones, District 8 JP William Crowder and District 9 JP were not in attendance.