Porter budget talks turn to graduated pay discussion

Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann’s presentation to the County Council outlining the need to increase salaries in his office by $1.5 million over the next five years dovetailed into an ongoing, annual discussion about how the council determines raises each year during budget hearings.

Germann, who gave council members purple binders with statistics from his office and a comparison to Tippecanoe County, which is similar in size, said during a Thursday budget hearing that his long-range plan also includes hiring 17 new employees.

“When I leave this office, I want it to be a much, much better place, and we’re getting there,” said Germann, who took office in January 2019.

The plan calls for almost $237,000 in increases for the coming year, a hard push when council members have said that while the budget for 2021 is solid, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cut those numbers for the following years.

Budget hearings started with a first reading Sept. 10 and since then, council members have wavered on whether raises would be a possibility. The approved budget for the general fund for this year was $41,756,690 and the 2021 budget is expected to be $1 million more.

An expected $500,000 drop in local income tax funds, noted at earlier meetings, appears unlikely to materialize. Auditor Vicki Urbanik said in a Friday email that the fund might increase by about $300,000 over this year, though that figure is still subject to change.

Regardless, Councilman Bob Poparad, D-1st, proposed graduated raises, with a 5% or 6% increase going to employees at the bottom of the wage scale and the amount of the raise decreasing in proportion to higher salaries so those earning the most would get the smallest raise.

The goal would be to close the pay gap in the county and boost salaries for employees at the low end of the pay scale, he said, since some county employees make less than $30,000.

“We’ve had this discussion every year and I’m just tired of it,” he said. “I’m just trying to close the gap.”

Councilman Dan Whitten, DAt large, said he wasn’t dismissing the notion that employees need raises and went on later in the meeting to suggest they should at least get cost-of-living increases for the coming year, but had concerns about graduated raises.

“We don’t want to de-incentivize the notion of rising up” into jobs that pay more, he said.

Over the years, Councilman Mike Jessen, R-4th, said the council has “talked about this issue incessantly year after year,” and suggested a wage analysis that would establish market, mid and maximum salary rates that could serve as a target for employee pay going forward.

With a plan in hand, the council wouldn’t be going through the same discussions about wages every year, he added.

Traditionally, the council has pushed discussion about salary increases, whether they were across the board or special raises requested by department heads, until the end of budget talks, when they have an idea of how much is available.

“It should be employees first,” Jessen said, adding the council has been looking at raises “on a very piecemeal basis.”

Whitten said he didn’t disagree but that one year, the council started budget hearings with 4% raises and by the time the sessions were over, there wasn’t enough money left, so rather than give employees a false sense of hope, the council addresses raises at the end of the hearings.

Poparad, Jessen and Council President Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd District, agreed to meet with Urbanik to discuss graduated raises.

Germann said he was in contact with a Muncie firm to do a salary analysis, as suggested by Jessen, for his office and the cost was around $20,000 so he decided to hold off.

Rivas estimated the cost of doing a similar study for the entire county would be $250,000, though Jessen said a comprehensive look at county salaries was “long overdue.”

“Before we dismiss it, it’s important to know what we’re looking at,” Jessen said.