This past Tuesday, the Monroe County council voted to adopt the budget for 2024 on a 5–1 tally. Dissenting was Marty Hawk. Geoff McKim was absent.
The total county budget for 2024 is $132,259,264, of which $59,251,842 is the general fund.
Hawk still voted in favor of the salary ordinance for non-elected county employees, which included an 8.5-percent raise, and a roughly 11-percent raise for those workers who are lowest on the salary grid.
Hawk was also the sole vote of dissent on the salary ordinance for elected officials, which included the same 8.5-percent increase as for other county employees.
After the meeting, Hawk clarified to The B Square that when faced with an up-or-down vote on the same percentage increase for all elected officials, she felt she had to vote it down—because she was not in favor of the same increase for all county elected officials. She put it like this: “I would just say that I’m not as inclined to approve of the jobs some of them do. Most do a great job. Most do.”
On Tuesday, county council president Kate Wiltz noted that the 2024 budget does not include funding for the planned new jail facility. No decision has yet been made on a site, even if the county is taking steps to consider the Thomson PUD as a location for the new jail.
Several comments from the public mic included criticism of the county’s plans to construct a new jail.
Sam Holdeman, with the group Care Not Cages, told the council that funding for the prosecutor’s office and for...
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