COUNTY FURLOUGHS EMPLOYEES FIVE DAYS

By Jon Mayhew (LINCOLN COUNTY) -- While other counties are looking at eliminating jobs or cutting services in tough economic times, Lincoln County manager George Wood and the Lincoln County Commission recently put their heads together and came up with a different idea.

Giving employees five days of furlough time -- or one extra day off per pay period.

In two memos sent to The Carolina Scoop, Wood announced and outlined the plan.

"The exception is the Department of Social Services," said Wood. "Their workload has increased due to the recession."

The cutbacks will be phased in over the eight bi-weekly pay periods starting at the end of February.

"These steps are necessary to meet the revenue shortfalls in sales taxes, building permits and Register of Deeds filings in Lincoln County," said Wood.

Wood said neither he or the Board of Commissioners wanted to have to furlough county employees. However, Wood called the move "necessary."

"We need to deal with the decline in some of our major revenue sources," said Wood, whose had county departments already cut back their controllable expenses by two percent, a move approved Monday by county commissioners.

According to Wood, the move to furlough employees would only affect 10 percent of an employee's paycheck. Taking five days away from employees at one time, however, would affect an employee's paycheck by 50 percent.

"This move will minimize the disruptions in our daily operations," said Wood. "Our management team recognizes that we are in a very difficult economic climate, with 10.4 percent unemployment and declining revenues."

Wood predicted the budget shortfall in Lincoln County as around $2.25 million.

"By doing the cutting this way, the impact would be spread out to people living paycheck to paycheck," said Wood.