The recession has brought a barrage of bad news to Salt Lake County government workers -- a hiring freeze, lower wages, no employer 401(k) contributions.
But the bad news just got less bad.
Until Tuesday, the county's 4,000 employees were bracing for a 13.3 percent bump in their tab for health insurance. But the County Council scaled back that increase, voting unanimously to raise employees' rates 5 percent and dip into the county's cash reserves to cover the rest.
That decision will cost the county about $800,000 and draw down its insurance-related reserve to about $5 million.
"Clearly, we feel it is a tough time," Democratic Councilwoman Jenny Wilson said, "and we want to do what is right for our employees."
It's an unexpected bright spot for county employees, who suffered a 2.75 percent pay cut this year to help balance a recession-bruised budget.
With its coffers clobbered by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the county slashed spending by $142 million, raised property taxes by $13 million and called on unincorporated areas to shoulder an extra $13 million for police protection.
Although the scaled back increase passed unanimously, Republican Councilman Steve DeBry warned his colleagues not to let the costs come back to bite taxpayers.
"I am very sympathetic to [employees'] plight," he said. "We should do all we can to help mitigate the situation. Having said that, I just don't want to go down the road and then have to have a tax increase to make up for what we are doing."
