Oneida County taxpayers should be outraged over the proposed raises in County Executive Anthony Picente’s 2009 budget — many of which far exceed 10 percent and some of which are actually double that.

Even more insulting to county taxpayers is the fact that Picente’s budget would raise the property tax levy 8.9 percent to help pay for the generous pay increases.

This isn’t acceptable. Residents should call county legislators and tell them so.

Picente’s budget includes raises of 10 percent or more for at least 310 county employees. Many of those raises far exceed the 10 percent range, while many others nudge double digits. Some are downright obscene, topping out at 20 percent and beyond.

Some examples:

Sheriff Daniel Middaugh’s pay will go up 33 percent. Legislators approved a $20,000 raise for the sheriff earlier this year, but he’ll get a cost-of-living increase on top of that, taking his pay from $67,674 to $90,210.

Assistant Public Defender Esther Lee would get $99,658 under the plan, up from $90,490, an increase of just over 10 percent. Law Department Paralegal Assistant Joyce Smith’s salary goes up 19 percent — from $53,858 to $64,082. Picente said he implemented raises in the legal department to bring parity to the salaries of lawyers in various county departments. They were negotiated in late 2007 and weren’t recorded in the 2008 budget book, though they went into effect this past spring.

Assistant Pistol License Officer Daniel Sullivan would get a 19 percent raise under Picente’s plan — from $40,911 to $48,814, an increase of $7,903.

There are many more. In fact, nearly 19 percent of the county’s 1,653 employees would see salary increases of 10 percent or more under Picente’s plan.

County officials say some of the raises are to fix pay inequities. Picente also says he wants to stop the “brain drain,” and paying higher salaries is one way to do it.

First, if this were private industry that might be a sound argument. But this is government — paid for by taxpayers, a majority of whom are struggling to make ends meet in a depressed economy. At a time when median earnings nationwide have risen about 3 percent — many salaries have actually been frozen — handing out such significant salary increases and expecting taxpayers to dig deeper to pay for them is reprehensible

Second, dozens of the significant pay increases are going to those employees who already are on the higher end of the pay scale. Lise Bang-Jensen of the Empire Center for Public Policy said the significant raises should be going to those on the lower end of the pay scale.

Even then, that shouldn’t be done by squeezing more out of county taxpayers. We would not, for instance, argue paying more for caseworkers in the social services department. But Picente needs to find that money elsewhere in the budget.

The bottom line is this: We’re on the cusp of what many economists say is a national recession. Now is not the time to be digging deeper into taxpayers’ pockets. And doing that in order to hand out fat raises is simply unconscionable. Tell legislators you shouldn’t have to pay for that.

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