Times leaner but wallets grow fatter

County constitutional agencies outstrip general government departments in pay and benefits.

By JOHN FRANK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 9, 2007

In times of plenty, Hernando County coffers grew heavy. So did many county employees' pockets, thanks to sizable salary increases every year.

Now times are leaner. State lawmakers capped local government spending, and taxpayers want to see more money in their pockets.

The bulk of recent criticism about spending has focused squarely on compensation -- more specifically salaries for members of the county's administrative offices.

The administrators took notice. This week, the County Commission will consider a scaled-back pay increase for county employees, favoring a raise of 3 percent instead of the originally proposed 5 percent.

But this outcry from taxpayers largely ignores two major factors driving up tax-dollar spending: wages for staffers in constitutional offices and benefit packages, according to an analysis by the St. Petersburg Times.

The percentage increase in salaries at each of the constitutional agencies -- the offices run by the clerk of court, property appraiser, sheriff, supervisor of elections and tax collector -- outpaced the increases for the county's general government employees during the last five years, the computer-assisted analysis shows.

The greatest increases during that period came from the Supervisor of Elections Office and the Clerk of Court's Office, where pay increased 62 percent and 58 percent, respectively, though those two offices have the lowest total payrolls of the constitutional offices. By comparison, salaries for the county's general government employees grew 36 percent from fiscal year 2002 through fiscal year 2007.

Heeding the prevailing winds, most constitutional officers have tentatively agreed to limit next year's raises to the level commissioners set for the county. The exception is the Sheriff's Office, which will grant employees average 3.6 percent raises in fiscal year 2008.

It's not just salaries but benefit packages that are inflating the county's personnel costs.

In the last five years, the total spent on benefits by the county and each constitutional office grew at a proportionally higher rate than salaries, the analysis indicates. For example, total wages paid by the Sheriff's Office grew 53 percent, but the total cost of benefits grew 103 percent during that period. Next year, the cost of benefits will rise again, and county officials will dip into tax coffers to cover the nearly 20 percent increase.

"Benefits are expensive," said Barbara Dupre, the county's human resources director. "Health insurance has gotten a little out of control."

Breaking down debate

In a larger context, the focus on taxpayer-funded employee compensation -- salaries and benefits -- is deserved.

Still, this debate is a complicated arena, packed full of statistics and numbers. Not to mention, legitimate apples-to-apples comparisons to other counties and agencies are generally improbable.

At the core is this fact: Personnel costs are the most debilitating facet of an agency's budget because they recur each year. And, barring layoffs, these costs only continue to grow.

Compensation accounts for at least three-quarters of each constitutional office's total budget. It consumes money for operational expenses and capital projects, such as building improvements or vehicle upgrades.

The Property Appraiser's Office provided figures that show 96 percent of its $2.8-million budget in 2007 went to employees. The Sheriff's Office wasn't far behind. Salaries and benefits accounted for 86 percent of its $30.9-million budget.

"We are a service agency; that is what we do," said Mike Hensley, chief deputy at the Sheriff's Office. "We have very little capital, and our operating costs are pretty much fixed."

The growth in personnel costs is explained, in part, by the growing number of employees.

Each constitutional office added people in the last five years. The Sheriff's Office hired the most at 49, which counts a number of dispatchers during a recent consolidation while the Supervisor of Elections Office added just two, county figures show. The county's general government offices actually downsized slightly by moving some employees to other areas of funding.

But the increase in employees doesn't match the increase in cost.

The percentage increase in compensation costs for the county's general government employees and each constitutional office grew exponentially higher than the proportion of new employees. For example, in the last five years, the Supervisor of Elections Office added two new employees, or a 15 percent increase in the size of its staff, but saw the cost of salaries and benefits rise approximately 65 percent during the same period.

High salaries add up

Salary increases help drive this trend. Employees at county departments have received at least an average 4.5 percent raise every year for the last 10 years. In 2002 and 2006, the wage increases totaled as much as 7 percent, as county officials brought employees in line with industry standards after outside compensation studies.

(Those working in constitutional offices also saw pay raises, traditionally in line with county employees, though some received more.)

From 2002 to 2007, the county payroll added 238 employees and grew from $18.3-million to $28.1-million, according to a salary database provided to the St. Petersburg Times by the Hernando County Human Resources Department. The data includes full-time and part-time employees from all departments, including those operating independently, such as the Utilities Department. Employees at the county's two fire departments were excluded from the Times analysis.

In 2007, the median wage -which is the point where half the salaries are greater and half are less -- for a county employee was $30,532, calculations show. The same year, the average wage -which is the total number in salaries divided by the total number of employees -- was $34,408. In 2002, the median wage equalled $28,974 while the average wage came out to $31,562.

But the averages are severely skewed by part-time employees making as little as $6.67 an hour and upper-level administrators earning as much as $132,309 a year, experts said.

"The average is fine when the numbers in your collection are spread pretty evenly from the low end to the high end, as is typical for the things like heights or weights of people," explained Steve Doig, a Arizona State University journalism professor who specializes in statistics. "But some collections aren't distributed so evenly, as is usually the case with collections involving money, like property values or salaries. In that case, the median ... usually is more appropriate."

Benefits costs vary

When it comes to benefits, costs are difficult to break down because employees select their own plans. Most county employees -- regardless of whether they work directly for the county or for a constitutional office -- are part of the same BlueCross BlueShield health insurance coverage and a life insurance plan. Under the system, the county gives employees a lump sum and allows them to choose health insurance from a menu of options that best suit them and their family.

In 2007, the county gave employees an average of about $550 toward health insurance, Dupre said.

The amount typically covers the entire expense for the individual employee. Additional costs, whether for themselves or dependents, are paid out-of-pocket by the employee.

Health insurance rises

Next year, the price of health insurance paid by the county will jump to about $650 per employee, a 18 percent gain. Taxpayers will cover the entire increase for county employees.

"We can't tell employees to absorb the total increase," Dupre said. "They wouldn't stay."

Employees at the Sheriff's Office, sworn and nonsworn, use a similar but separate arrangement through BlueCross BlueShield, said Hensley. The Sheriff's Office pays for all health insurance costs for the employee, and the employee pays for any dependents. But next year, many agency employees will see a decrease in benefits costs because officials negotiated a lower rate.

In 2007, the Sheriff's Office paid an average $551 in benefits for its employees. Next year, the average drops to about $543.

"The county gives them a lump sum to spend. We just pay for it," Hensley said.

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6114.

The debate continues

The County Commission will discuss employee salaries and benefits during a meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The county's first public hearing on the fiscal 2008 budget will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday. Both sessions will be in the County Commission chambers at the Hernando County Government Center, 20 N Main St., Brooksville.

[Last modified September 8, 2007, 20:12:08]