Just as many employers in the private sector of our economy are feeling the need to balance the salaries of their employees with the costs they are charging their customers, the Carbon County commissioners find themselves in a similar dilemma.

The parallel looks like this: Owners at fast food places, for example, find they need to increase their wages to attract employees who not that long ago were willing to work for minimum wage, but that’s rarely the case anymore. To increase these raises, sometimes by more than 50%, the owners find they need to pass along these increased costs to the consumers in the form of higher menu prices.

The commissioners have many employees working for county departments and agencies who are well below $15 an hour, which has become a sort of new normal for many employees across the economy today. To do something about it, the commissioners consider how increases will impact county taxpayers in the form of real estate tax increases in 2023 and beyond.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich referenced this touchy concern during a recent meeting. Saying it is “fiscally irresponsible” to allocate funds that are nonexistent. Lukasevich expressed his concern about how these salary increases would have to be paid in the form of higher taxes.

Of particular concern, Lukasevich said, is the impact it would have on an estimated 14,000 senior citizens who he said are already in a bind finding money to pay their taxes and 7,100 county residents living below federal poverty guidelines. Carbon has a population of about 66,000.

Other officeholders and department heads who tried to force a wage hike for their employees starting in the fourth quarter made a case that they are losing employees because of the low wages, which impact on the level of services they can provide county residents.

The county salary board narrowly voted to give some employees 6% increases that would help them reach a type of salary parity, but the commissioners rejected the proposal citing several factors including whether such an action is legal. The county solicitor believes that it is not, based on a case involving nearby Monroe County.

In an almost identical case in Commonwealth Court from 1994 (Cadue v. Moore), Monroe County commissioners James Cadue and Janet Weidensaul successfully argued that the third commissioner’s and the salary board’s approval of employee increases after the annual budget was already adopted and in force would overdraw the budgeted amount for salaries necessitating the transfer of funds from the general account and possibly result in a real estate tax increase.

The court’s opinion also noted that the commissioners, not the salary board, has the ultimate authority to set and adjust employees’ raises and salaries. This point was raised by Lukasevich, a Republican, who responded to a taxpayer favoring the raises. He said that he and commissioner Rocky Arner, a Democrat, “saved” Carbon from a “Republican led initiative” by commissioner (Wayne) Nothstein, President Judge (Roger) Nanovic, most row officers, all of whom are Republicans, and a few other department heads “that not only would undermine the legal authority and responsibilities of the Board of Commissioners, but would have resulted in a fait-accompli tax increase in 2023.”

The county is awaiting the results of a $48,000 salary study of eight counties, which was originally scheduled for completion in July. The commissioners want to examine the study’s results to see where Carbon stands in salaries in relation to the others, then possibly take corrective action in January when the salary board meets after the 2023 budget is in place.

The county has approximately 300 full-time and 100 part-time employees. While the salaries for some positions are considered to be fair and competitive, it is those at the lower end of the pay scale that have become problematic as salaries in the private sector have been driven up by the need for more employees and competition among employers for workers.

It’s obviously an employees’ dream situation right now where they can be choosy about where they work, so entities such as government, which depend on public financing, find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place trying to be competitive while at the same time taking into account the ability of taxpayers to shoulder additional tax payments to pay for the pay increases.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.