Taylor County employees to receive 'premium pay' via ARPA funds

Taylor County commissioners Tuesday approved the use of American Rescue Plan Act dollars to provide two one-time instances of premium pay for county employees who  worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

ARPA funds will be used to provide one-time pay of $5,000 to law enforcement employees, $4,000 for other county employees.

The actual amount an employee receives will be based on their hire date — 100%, 50% or 25%, said Elijah Anderson, the county's auditor, in an email.

"If someone was employed at the start of the pandemic they will get 100% of either $4,000 or $5,000," Anderson said.

Law enforcement includes employees of the Taylor County Sheriff's Office, constables, and corrections and detention officers.

Commissioner Brad Birchum said law enforcement employees had to take public calls as part of their duties, risking potential exposure to COVID-19, while those who work in the jail setting had to similarly work with a diverse population, also ratcheting up potential exposure.

"You don't get to pick and choose who comes in, you get to deal with them when you get there," he said.

Birchum also supported the sliding scale, based on when employees were hired.

More:Taylor commissioners enter budget hearings $8 million in requests over expected revenue

More coming 

In addition to those dollars, all current county employees will receive another $2,000 in six months from ARPA funds as a way to encourage employee retention.

Anderson said associated costs, including the second round of $2,000 premium pay, would be between $4.3 million to a high of $4.6 million.

The county expects to receive $27 million, leaving somewhere around $22.5 million for other needs.

"So somewhere in these numbers, I think is enough to be impactful to employees, but also is respectful to the grants we receive and how to allocate that and still have funds for other projects," Anderson said.

Final rules have not yet come out from the Treasury Department, but Anderson said he expects them shortly.

County Judge Downing Bolls said use of ARPA funds are currently "very open to interpretation."

"I just want the commissioners court to make sure that $20-something million is not going to last very long," he said.

Birchum said the funds are supposed to benefit both taxpayers and employees.

"By offering premium payment to our employees, that keeps them on the job, that retains our law enforcement," he said. "... That benefits the taxpayer."

Bolls agreed, but he said it was important to understand that the use was one-time and couldn't be used to "play catch-up" on county salaries.

Commissioner Chuck Statler said investing in the county's employees was "investing in the best thing that we have."

Budget moving forward

Ongoing discussion on the county's budget for the next fiscal year moved forward, commissioners looking at whether to use the county's fund balance to fund a roughly $1.16 million deficit, reduced from an initial deficit of $7.5 million. 

Anderson cautioned against relying on the county's fund balance for that amount, especially for recurring costs such as salaries, advocating an additional cent on the tax rate.

Birchum, though, advocated the idea, arguing that by keeping proposed tax rate at the "no new tax rate" level, it would encourage further growth in the county.

"This growth is going to continue, and what spurs this growth is low taxes," he said. 

The "no new tax rate," given recent numbers from the Taylor County Central Appraisal District, is 59.45 cents per $100 of property value.

Last year, the county passed a no new tax  rate of 61.83 cents per $100 valuation.

The county could raise the rate as high as 65.8 cents per $100 of property value before a rollback election would need to be called under current state legislation.

Looing ahead, commissioners made a few suggestions, such as using ARPA funds for items such as elevator repair.

"Let's do everything we can do with ARPA funds, pull what we can from the fund balance, and move forward with this presentation," said Commissioner Kyle Kendrick, summarizing the motion to move forward.

 Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News.  If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.