In county government, as with businesses, the employees are the biggest cost. But county government hasn't followed the private sector's lead yet in managing that cost, or those employees, well.
"It is clear we cannot sustain the costs associated with continuing what we are currently doing," Porter County Councilman Jim Biggs said. He said Porter County needs to restructure employment practices, decrease service or raise taxes.
Restructuring is the preferred approach to address this issue.
Porter County will spend more than $37.6 million on its employees this year. Lake County will spend between $53 million and $59 million.
Benefits are generous, with a dozen or more paid holidays each year and employees picking up a far smaller share of their health insurance premiums than their counterparts in the private sector.
In Porter County, the work week is 32.5 to 35 hours, yet employees get 10 to 25 paid vacation days a year, depending on the number of years of experience. Lake County employees work 40-hour weeks and get up to 30 paid vacation days, depending on when they were hired.
Add up all the paid time off, for vacation, sick or personal days and holidays, and an employee could get paid to be absent as much as two months a year.
That's generous to a fault.
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Elected officials value government employees, as they should, but start managing that asset better.
