Now that the raises are in place, we can brace for the worst, and hope county employees are not laid off. Looks like the County Board may re-visit a sales tax increase for St. Lawrence County. When aide is cut by the government usually services are cut. With one third of the county receiving social services this could severely impact a big part of the population.
Jounal Article
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The CSEA union just recieved their raises. You got to here about the 2.25 percent. What you dont get to here is the step increase for most. Then on top of that you have longevity bonuses. In the case of the other two unions they held out so they could sign later and recieve more. Their money will be hidden in bonus and longevity checks .
Issues for talk should be cutting services, cutting overtime cutting positions through attrition and now layoffs. Cut everywhere. We hire a county attorney for legal matters but all he does is serve as a broker to hand out all the legal work other attornies. This has to be looked at... County is self insured but now they hire outside interests to administer the health life and compensation insurences.
Our local legislators kept their promise and two of the three voted against the raises.. One way to help start would be reducing duplication of services.. Cut the Sheriff and I mean totally let the State Police be the law enforcement in this area.. Areas like towns for instance like Edwards or Louisville could hire their own policing like Norwood from the Laid off Deputies.. Let the Correctional people do the transporting of inmates. They are trained to do such..I live in Massena,I pay taxes here and part of my taxes go to a police force and do not feel I should have to pay for someone to police in these townsnor backup other agencies in this area. Let them make their own decisions.. Forces in Canton, Potsdam, Norwood, Massena Gouverneur,Ogdensburg should be run from taxes from those places.
The board of legislators has to sit down and list all non mandated jobs in the County. Then they must sit and make a list of duplicated jobs within the County. The budget should be drawn up according to this list and added to accordingly to importance to the legislators.
If manpower cuts have to be made then supervision cuts also have to be made. Spending plans have to be drawn up with the legislators setting the priorities.. Dept Heads have to be made accountable to explain all of the options to getting the job done with the least number of personnell possible and I mean accountable. They cannot accept the words Cant do.The Dept heads must accept the words you have to do.. If this is done and dept heads are made accountable it would help restore some of the shortfalls that we face.
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