Ada Co Public Hearing

In these tough economic times, people have been laid off from private companies, or been forced to take pay cuts or retire.  Government employees have faced similar reductions in force and frozen salaries, too.  Programs and services have been cut, and the idea was, if you wanted to stay in for your pension, you toughed it out.

There was a hearing to be held last night about the proposed Ada Co budget for the next year.  It isn't a lower budget, it's actually 11% higher.  Almost 2 million of the proposed increase is for a 2.5% raise in pay for county staff who have gone without raises for 3 years now. 

I wish I had gone to that hearing, I bet it would have been interesting.  I am also betting that if the pay increase flies, all the other counties and cities and maybe even the state employees will be expecting some similar loving to show up in their paychecks starting next year.

I'm also betting, any raises will be more than offset by increases in health insurance expenses.  And it looks like the days of no property tax increases may soon be over. 

Did you go to the hearing?  What happened, if anything?  I can't find any mention of it today, was it just a non-issue?