Price of progress
Our Marion County Commissioners are willing to put some money where our mouths are for countywide economic development.
This is great news for those of us wanting to see Marion County, and the cities within, grow and flourish. Development efforts have to be coordinated countywide to be effective. There is no doubt about that.
However, the timing stinks.
With reduced revenue from the state, the county has had layoffs, employees have not had a significant pay increase for the past two years (and perhaps not for the next two years), and departments have made cutbacks across the board.
The need to "take care of what we have" is something we all have to be reminded of occasionally.
Employee morale is a powerful thing.
When employees feel they are appreciated and treated fairly, loyalty and job performance generally increases. Turnover is minimal and quality of work is impressive.
When employees feel they are taken for granted and dispensable, their attitudes and job performance reflect that.
Employees are late to work, job performance is reduced to doing just enough to get by, and turnovers result in inexperienced workers. In the long run, this costs an employer far more than a raise.
We all know that there is a price to pay for progress. Change can be painful. Life-changing decisions usually come with a trade off.
It's the chicken and the egg thing.
To be able to afford to give raises to county employees, property valuations need to increase or expenses curtailed.
In order to substantially broaden the tax base, business expansion has to occur and new homes built.
And, in order to expand existing and new businesses, there has to be a county coordinator to facilitate the process.
This brings us back to the original dilemma.
The question I hear from county employees is "if money for this new position and department was always there, why wasn't it used before now for employees' raises?"
Is there a way to do both?
— SUSAN BERG
