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Lawrence Co. panel OKs early-retirement offer
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — Lawrence County commissioners approved a voluntary, one-time, early- retirement plan for employees 62 and older, their latest move in an effort to prevent a financial disaster before the end of the year, as well as in the long term.
Employees must decide before the end of this month whether to take the offer.
The move comes as county officials desperately try to conserve cash in light of the Pennsylvania Legislature’s failure to pass a 2009-10 budget 78 days — as of today — into the new fiscal year.
The county is getting hit hard because state money makes up about $70 million of the county’s $96 million budget.
Forty-seven employees qualify for early retirement, and if they would all take the offer, the county would save $420,000 per year, officials said Tuesday.
To make the plan profitable, the vacated positions would have to remain vacant until the retirees reach 65.
If the retiree is a department head, however, another person in the office could move into the position, leaving a vacant post elsewhere in the office, commissioners said.
The early retirees would be able to keep their county-paid health insurance until they reach 65 or are Medicare-eligible. Insurance costs the county $9,000 per year for a single person or $12,000 for a couple.
Commissioners still are planning furloughs for county employees with union votes set for today and Monday on proposals to have employees take 12 unpaid days off between now and the end of the year.
Commissioners discussed, then unanimously defeated, their own motion to impose the furlough on nonunion and management personnel Tuesday after acknowledging they need to talk further with their labor attorneys to determine how to impose the layoffs in a workable and legal way.
They found some problems with their previous plan in that it is illegal to lay off salaried employees one day at a time, but not in groups of days.
Commissioner Steve Craig noted that the commissioners will not take furlough days because elected officials are exempted from this by law.
Commissioners are not sure exactly when they will run out of money. On Tuesday, Controller David Gettings reported the county has $1.7 million on hand. Penalty- phase taxes are coming in, but payrolls run $500,000 to $700,000 every two weeks.
The employee furloughs would save one-third of an anticipated year-end $1.2 million shortfall if the state budget is still not passed by then.
Other measures, such as energy-efficiency efforts, a hiring freeze and unpaid voluntary furlough days, have been put in place to save additional money, commissioners said.
But Craig noted that even if the budget is passed soon, the outlook is still bleak with severe cuts predicted in many areas.
Craig, who was scheduled to spend two days this week lobbying for county issues in Washington, D.C., said he canceled his trip in light of the crisis because he did not want to be away for two days. He said commissioners are talking “almost nonstop” with court officials about the cutbacks.
“We are putting together contingencies,” he said. “We are working with the courts to be accessible and open as long as we can be.”