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Finance committee approves 5% COLA; forwards tax-levy proposal and multi-year balancing charge
Summary
Richland County finance and personnel approved a 5% cost-of-living adjustment for the county wage schedule and forwarded a proposed tax-levy change for 2024 to the county board while asking standing committees to help balance 2025–2028 projections.
Richland County’s Finance and Personnel Committee approved a 5% cost-of-living adjustment to the county wage schedule and forwarded a related resolution to the County Board that includes a proposed tax-levy change for 2024.
The committee also charged standing committees, including the Health & Human Services and Veterans Services Committee, with developing balanced figures for the following four years (2025–2028) before the budget session concludes. The action was reported to the HHS/Veterans committee during its meeting; the material is pending final County Board action.
Why it matters: the 5% wage increase alters payroll projections across county departments and can raise short-term levy pressure. Finance and Personnel described the approved change as a move from a prior 4.5% blended schedule to a uniform 5% COLA and said it will continue to examine whether a later two-step increase is feasible.
Details reported to the HHS/Veterans committee included that no final county-wide budget decisions were made at the Finance and Personnel meeting; rather, the committee forwarded the 2024 levy resolution to County Board for consideration next week and tasked standing committees to provide balanced projections for 2025–2028. Committee leadership emphasized many figures remain estimates.
Questions and next steps: HHS members asked how the proposed levy change would be calculated; Finance and Personnel said the work is based on the proposed 2023 allocation of tax levy and that further adjustments could follow County Board action. Final adoption of any wage or levy changes requires County Board approval and incorporation into the 2024 budget documents.
Meeting context: the Finance and Personnel action was reported by Tim Gotchell, County Board member (District 9), to the HHS/Veterans committee during its August meeting. The committee did not itself vote on the COLA at that meeting; Finance and Personnel’s approval occurred at its own session and was communicated as an update.
