<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Wayne,<div><br></div><div>I agree with you for the most part, and I'm NOT saying that raises under certain economic conditions are not appropriate. How ever, every taxing entity seems to be nibbling away and nibbling away on a tax payer base that for the most part has not gotten any raises for 3, 4, 5 years.</div><div>At what point it it irresponsible to give raises when the tax paying base hasn't had any raise in pay?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Wayne</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Aug 4, 2011, at 6:05 PM, Art Deco wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"> <meta content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19088"> <div style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; WORD-WRAP: break-word; PADDING-TOP: 15px; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space" id="MailContainerBody" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" canvastabstop="true" name="Compose message area"> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">My observation is that some employees like city clerk Stephanie Kalasz at city hall really earn their pay and probably could make much more in other places.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">On the other hand the pace of work of many of those in the public works department is abysmally slow and the way they go about their jobs hardly the most effective way. Both of these are supervisory problems in large part. I am amazed that city taxpayers are so tolerant of such obvious sloth.</font></div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana"></font> </div> <div><font size="2" face="Verdana">w.</font></div> <div style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma"> <div><br></div> <div style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <div style="font-color: black"><b>From:</b> <a title="bear@moscow.com" href="mailto:bear@moscow.com">Wayne Price</a> </div> <div><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 04, 2011 5:01 PM</div> <div><b>To:</b> <a title="vision2020@moscow.com" href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">Moscow Vision 2020</a> </div> <div><b>Subject:</b> [Vision2020] Maybe joining with Lewiston Isn't Such a Bad Idea.....</div></div></div> <div><br></div>LEADING BY EXAMPLE! And what did we do here in Moscow? The City Council gave the city employees and themselves a raise! <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif" class="Apple-style-span"> <h1 style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px; FONT-FAMILY: georgia, times, serif; COLOR: rgb(52,52,52); FONT-SIZE: 1.75em">Nez Perce Co. commissioners consider taking a pay cut</h1></span> <div><br></div> <div><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(52,52,52); FONT-SIZE: 14px" class="Apple-style-span">LEWISTON - Faced with the prospect of not being able to afford future Jail bond payments, Nez Perce County commissioners say they are considering a pay cut to save taxpayers money. </span></div> <div><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(52,52,52); FONT-SIZE: 14px" class="Apple-style-span">The three commissioners met with a few department heads Wednesday afternoon to discuss the budget. Last week, commissioners asked departments to cut an additional $127,000. Chairman Mike Grow said rolling back their salary to what it was before the last increase is one way to take the lead in making the tough cuts. <br>"We thought that as leaders of the county we should take the first hit before we started having to make cuts anywhere," said Grow. "The first ones that ought to take the hit are the leaders."</span></div></div> <div><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(52,52,52); FONT-SIZE: 14px" class="Apple-style-span">Auditor Patty Weeks said the cut would save the county approximately $8,700. Commissioner Doug Havens said the county is trying to build up reserves for those future jail payments. With the economy the way it is, he said they asked others in the county to take a cut as well. <br>"Though we haven't taken a final vote, it's something that we're considering for ourselves," said Havens. "And we thought we would offer it to the other elected officials as well, while we're having this budget crisis."<br>In response to the commissioners request, elected officials declined a voluntary salary rollback. Currently the commissioners face raising property taxes at least 2 % to make up revenue. Resident Jim Kluss attended the meeting and urged the county to make the budget work without relying on taxpayers. <br>"I think what I'm saying is representative of very many people who live in this county," said Kluss. "I don't believe it's at all unreasonable to work with a 0% increase in property taxes."<br>The final budget will be adopted following a public hearing on September 6th.</span></div><div> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><hr><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> <br> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================</div> =======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a> <br> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================</blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>