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Thursday, March 17, 2005

Payday Quirk Wasn't A Raise

By Beth Hahn
Mountain View Telegraph
    A one-sentence disclaimer included in the 2004-05 Torrance County budget caused some confusion for county officials and residents alike.
    Jo Ann Sparkman, president of Concerned Citizens Inc., questioned County Manager Bob Ayre and Torrance County Commissioners about the statement during meetings on Feb. 25 and March 9.
    The statement says that due to a leap year, county employees appear to have higher salaries in 2004-05 than in the previous fiscal year— not because the workers received a pay raise but because there was an extra pay period in the fiscal year.
    However, neither 2004 nor 2005 is a leap year. Fiscal 2004-05 began in July.
    According to a county employee calendar, Torrance County workers are paid every other Thursday, and the first payday of the fiscal year fell on the first day of the fiscal year, July 1. The final day of the fiscal year is also a Thursday and a payday.
    That means pay would appear to be higher than in the previous year, although county employees did not receive a raise, Ayre said.
    Ayre said the timing of the pay period is coincidence.
    "It's not a conspiracy by county employees to give themselves a raise," he said in a phone interview. "We get paid every 14 days by state law ... it depends on how often every 14-day period comes up."
    The effect only happens once every few years, said Ayre.
    The next few county budgets will not reflect any fluctuation in pay— without an actual salary increase.
    Ayre said county bean-counters are not sure when the next convergence of employee pay periods and the beginning of a fiscal year will happen.
    "We thought about it and none of us is really sure when the next one will be," he said. "It doesn't happen very often."
    Ayre said that according to one state Department of Finance and Administration representative, the same pay day and fiscal year beginning happened at the state level last year.