Monday morning members of the Plymouth County Council set out to pare down the 2015 budget requests from $9,041,321 to $8,725,243.
Each county budget was reviewed and considered for reductions. $100,000 was cut from the rainy day fund for repair of buildings while $20,000 from the rainy day fund was cut for the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation.
A miscalculation in the Highway budget allowed for a reduction of $50,000 for employee social security although they did approve two additional employees for the department. The council cut $10,000 for part-time maintenance in the building and ground fund and cut the request of the sheriff for an additional merit officer at a cost of $47,067. The annual request for another probation officer fell on deaf ears and the council cut the probation fund by $31,465.
After reviewing all the budgets and making cuts from $500 to $25,000 there was still the need to $197,836. Auditor Penny Lukenbill made some suggestions and the County Council went with moving the County Police Pension from the General Fund to Certified Shares. That change gave the county a $78,000 buffer.
Council members then discussed and determined that County employees will pay 5% of their health insurance premium beginning in 2015. Since the county doesn’t have the new premiums it was estimated that employees will pay close to $20 a pay period for their insurance instead of $1.00 a year.
Not only will Marshall County employees receive an additional pay in 2015, the County Council also approved a flat pay raise of $300 for all full-time employees during the budget adoption on Monday.
Typically there are 26 pays per year for county employees who are paid every other week. But in 2015 there will be 27 pays which actually equates to a nearly 4% pay raise.
Council members thought giving a flat rate pay increase would help off-set the new cost for health insurance.
