[Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn

[Reyn Bowman]

They will probably do it with vacancies which mean the higher paid folks will assume even more responsibilities.  The goal would be to do no harm and the percentages below have only one flaw...they assume the higher the income, the more discretionary income and that is rarely the case until it gets to about $250,000.   Many of those people will have debt obligations and can't decelerate that rapidly.  There is also a retirement component.

I think they have some very smart management folks at the County who have this well in hand.  Doing more with less, doesn't automatically mean a cut in services...but it does mean that people will need to work much harder and smarter and we need to keep them incented.

-----Original Message-----
From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of Kelly Jarrett
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 10:50 AM
To: PAC2; inc-list at durhaminc.org
Subject: [Durham INC] County & City responses to economic downturn

I hear that the County is requesting its departments to cut their 
operating budgets by 10%. The City is also contemplating cuts. Like most 
of us, I am concerned about the implications of these cuts, especially 
what they will mean for City & County employees as well as availability 
of and access to services for Durham residents.

I hope that job preservation will be the highest priority. As a job 
preservation strategy, I suggest that budget cuts begin with salary 
reductions starting at the top: 5% reductions of all salaries over 
$50,000 a year; 10% reduction of salaries over $100,000; 15% reduction 
of salaries over $150,000. This should provide some significant cost 
savings, leave highly paid employees with adequate salaries to live on, 
and preserve the jobs of  less well compensated employees--those such as 
food stamp and medicaid workers, entry level social workers, and 
front-line staff who are actually providing the services that are in 
high demand during economic hard times.

Kelly J.


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